TP R 

453^ 



light of a 
artar Tribe 



^Edited By 

French 




DE QUINCEY 




SCOTT, FORESMAN AND 
COMPANY, PUBLISHERS, 
378-388 WABASH AVE- 
NUE, CHICAGO, ILLINOIS 






LIBRARY OF CONGRESS. 

yK^^^^ o. 

Chap. Copyright No..ii_ft 

Shell.LS_ij: ' 



UNITED STATES OF AMERICA. 



W"---' 



I 



I i 



ENGLISH CLASSICS 



EDITED BY 



LINDSAY TODD^DAMON, A.B. 

Instructor in English in the University of Chicago 



lEnalisb Classics 

1 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 



OR FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS 

PEOPLE FROM THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES 

TO THE FRONTIERS OF CHINA 

/ 
THOMAS DE QUINCEY 



EDITED FOR SCHOOL USE 
BY 

CHARLES W. FRENCH 

) 

PRINCIPAL OF THE HYDE PARK HIGH SCHOOL, CHICAGO, ILL. 



CHICAGO 

SCOTT, FORESMAN & CO. 

1898 









'n^2 



Copyright, 1898 
By SCOTT, FORESMAN & COMPANY 



/«-3/ 



ui' 



CONTENTS. 



Biographical Sketch of De Quincey ... 5 

De Quincey's Characteristics as a Writer . 17 

Introduction 25 

Bibliography of Biographical and Critical Works 

relating to De Quincey 31 

Suggestive Questions 32 

Revolt of the Tartars 35 

Glossary ......... 119 



^BIOGRAPHICAL SKETCH OF DE QUINCEY 

Thomas De Quincey, born in Manchester, Eng- 
land, August 15, 1785, was the second son and 
fifth child of a merchant of some wealth and cul- 
ture. His father died when he was seven years old, 
leaving him to the joint guardianship of his mother 
and four old friends of the family. For several 
years his education was directed by one of these 
guardians, a curate in charge of a Manchester par- 
ish, who laid the foundation for those classical 
studies in which De Quincey afterwards became so 
proficient. As a part of his system of training the 
curate required his charge to attend the Sunday 
services, and to ^\Tite out an abstract of the sermon, 
which was afterwards compared with the original 
and mercilessly criticised. Although this exercise 
developed a power of attention and memory which 
in later years became a marked feature of De Quin- 
cey 's intellectual life, at the time the nervous boy 
found it dull and irksome. 

In the Confessions of an English Opinm-Eater 

5 



6 INTRODUCTION. 

De Quincey refers to this weekly task as follows : 

*' Every Sunday, duly as it revolved, brought with 
it this cruel anxiety. On Saturday night under 
sad anticipation, on Sunday night under sadder 
experimental knowledge of my trying task, I slept 
ill ; my pillow was stuffed with thorns ; and untik 
Monday morning's inspection had dismissed me 
from parade to 'stand at ease,' verily, I felt like a 
false steward summoned to some killing audit. 
* * * To the very last, I found no ease at all 
in this weekly task, which never ceased to be a 
thorn in the flesh ; and I believe that my guardian, 
like many of the grim Pagan divinities, inhaled a 
flavor of fragrant incense from the fretting and 
stinging of anxiety which, as it were 'Some holy 
vestal flre, he kept alive by this periodic exaction. 
It gave him pleasure that he could reach me in the 
very recesses of my dreams, where even a Pariah 
might look for rest ; so that the Sunday, which to 
man, and even to the brutes within his gates, offered 
an interval of rest, for me was signalized as a day 
of martyrdom. Yet in this, after all, it is possible 
that he did me a service; for my constitutional 
inflrmity of mind ran but too determinately towards 
the sleep of endless reverie, and of dreamy abstrac- 
tion from life and its realities." 

Some years after his father's death, his mother 

moved to Bath, where he entered the Grammar 

School. But, as his work proved unsatisfactory, he 

was soon removed to a private school in Wiltshire, 

Three years later he was sent back to Manchester 

to attend the celebrated Grammar School there. 

The Grammar Schools of those days occupied a 



INTRODUCTION. 7 

position in the educational system of. England 
somewhat similar to that held by the High 
Schools in America today. They were pre- 
paratory schools for the great Universities, and 
their gi'aduates (even if they did not attend any 
higher institution) were considered well edu- 
cated. The course of work in these schools 
included a thorough and comprehensive training in 
the classical languages and literatures, and not very 
much besides. For such a training De Quincey was 
peculiarly apt. From the beginning of his school 
career he maintained a high standard as a classical 
scholar. He became as familiar with Latin 
and Greek as with his native tongue, and gained a 
reputation for the facility with which he wrote 
verses in Latin and compositions in Greek. 

He was, however, far from being contented. His 
health was never robust, and by close confinement 
and the consequent lack of exercise he became 
much depressed both physically and mentally. 
The daily unvarying routine of school-life was dis- 
tasteful to him in the extreme. He felt that no 
appeal that he could make would serve to abate the 
rigid discipline and, as he believed, the senseless 
tyranny of the school. Moreover, he was too 
proud to appeal to his guardians, feeling, with 



INTRODUCTION. 



some reason, that his case would be misunderstood. 
Therefore, after brooding long over the matter, he 
determined upon a step which was destined to be 
the beginning of his strangely eccentric career, and 
at the same time to estrange him permanently from 
his family and friends, none of whom had ever had 
much patience with his so-called freaks. This step 
was to turn his back upon his miseries and run 
away from school. In his Confessions^ he dwells 
upon this episode of his early life with much pathos. 
He says: 

"At length, all was ready; Midsummer, like an 
army with banners, was moving through the heav- 
ens; already the longest day had passed; those 
arrangements, few and imperfect, through which I 
attempted some partial evasion of disagreeable 
contingencies likely to arise, had been finished; 
what more remained for me to do of things that I 
was able to do? None; and yet, though at last 
free to move off, I lingered; lingered, as under 
some sense of dim perplexity, or even of relenting 
love for the very captivity itself which I was 
making so violent an effort to abjm-e — what I was 
hastening to desert, nevertheless I grieved to 
desert. * * * rpj^^ morning came which was 
to launch me into the world ; that morning from 
which, and from its consequences, my whole suc- 
ceeding life has, in many important points, taken 
its coloring. At half after three I rose, and gazed 
with deep emotion at the ancient collegiate church, 
'dressed in earliest light,' and beginning to crimson 
with the deep lustre of a cloudless July morning. 



INTRODUCTION. 9 

I was firm and immoTable in my purpose, but yet 
agitated by anticipation of uncertain danger and 
troubles. To this agitation, the deep peace of the 
morning presented an affecting contrast, and, in 
some degree, a medicine. * * * I di^essed myself, 
took my hat and gloves, and lingered a little in the 
room. For nearly a year and a half, this room had 
been my 'pensive citadel;' here I had read and 
studied through all the hours of night ; and, though 
true it was that, for the latter part of this time, 
I had lost my gaiety and peace of mind during the 
strife and fever of contention with my guardian, 
yet, on the other hand, as a boy passionately fond 
of books and dedicated to intellectual pursuits, I 
could not fail to have enjoyed many happy hours in 
the midst of general dejection. * * * I waited 
until I saw the trunk placed upon a wheelbarrow, 
and on its road to the carriers ; then, 'with Provi- 
dence my guide,' or more truly, it might be said, 
with my own headstrong folly for law and impulse, 
I set off on foot; carrying a small parcel with 
some articles of di^ess under my arm, a favorite 
English poet in one pocket, and an odd volume, 
containing about one-half of Canter's 'Euripides,' 
in the other." 

He turned his steps homeward in order to relieve 
the anxiety of his friends in regard to his where- 
abouts, but was coldly received by his mother, who 
could not understand the peculiarities of her son's 
disposition, and blamed him bitterly for his way- 
wardness. He was finally given a small allowance, 
and set adrift to wander wherever his caprice might 
lead him. He made his way to Wales, where he 



10 INTRODUCTION. 

spent some weeks ; a part of the time in the villages, 
and a part in the picturesque solitudes of the 
mountains and forests. But he soon tired of this 
life, and turned his restless steps towards London, 
where he hoped to find a career, but more espe- 
cially means to raise money upon his expectations. 
His hopes, however, were not realized, for neither 
career nor money came to him, and he entered upon 
a life of destitution and vagabondage, from which 
he was finally rescued by his friends, and sent to 
Oxford. 

His university life extended from 1803 to 1809. 
Though an irregular and fitful student, he seemed 
never to tire of classical studies, in which he 
especially excelled. He was an omnivorous and 
thoughtful reader, straying at will through the 
broad fields of literature, thus laying the founda- 
tions of that familiarity with the various depart- 
ments of learning which, in later years, enabled 
him to write upon numerous themes of widely 
diverse natures. As he withdrew himself almost 
wholly from the social life of the university, he 
made but few friends, and gained for himself the 
reputation of a recluse. Much of his work was 
brilliant, but he seemed wholly indifferent to any 
honor or credit which he might gain by it, and 



INTRODUCTION. 11 

finally left the university almost as abruptly as he 
had left the Manchester Grammar School, without 
presenting himself for the degree to which he was 
probably entitled. 

During his Oxford life, he became addicted to 
the use of opium, which, in ignorance of its danger- 
ous nature, he took at first to relieve attacks of 
severe pain, to which he was subject. Charmed by 
its almost magical influence, he soon yielded him- 
self a willing slave to the potent drug, which was 
destined to be the inspiration of one of the most 
brilliant literary works in the English language. 
The Confessions of an English Opium-Eater. 
He had been suffering severely from nem^algia, and 
was advised to take a dose of laudanum. He says : 

''I took it; and in an hour — oh, heavens? what a 
revulsion! what an upheaving, from its lowest 
depths, of the inner spirit! what an apocalypse of 
the world within me ! That my pains had vanished 
was now a trifle in my eyes ; this negative effect 
was swallowed up in the immensity of those positive 
effects which had opened before me, in the abyss of 
divine enjoyment thus suddenly revealed. Here 
was a panacea for all human woes ; here was the 
secret of happiness, about which philosophers had 
disputed for so many ages, at once discovered; 
happiness might now be bought for a penny, and 
carried in the waistcoat pocket ; portable ecstasies 
might now be corked up in a pint bottle; and 
peace of mind could be sent down in gallons by the 



12 INTRODUCTION. 

mail coach. But, if I talk in this way, the reader 
will think I am laughing ; and I can assure him 
that nobody will laugh long who deals much with 
opium ; its pleasures even are of a grave and solemn 
complexion ; and in his happiest state, the opium 
eater cannot present himself in the character of 
L' Allegro; even then he speaks and thinks as 
becomes II Penserosoy 

From this moment, he was never without a 
supply of the fascinating and deadly drug in some 
form. At times he gave himself wholly over to its 
influence, taking quantities which seem almost 
incredible. Then, for a time, he would summon 
all his energies, and break the chains which bound 
him, only to yield again to the tempter. In his 
later life, however, he reduced the daily doses to 
such an extent that he was free from its worst 
effects. 

He early became a great admirer of Wordsworth 
and Coleridge, and had, when he left Oxford, long 
cherished the hope that he might at some time be 
admitted to the circle of their friends. This wish 
was finally gratified, and he entered upon terms of 
intimacy with both of these poets. At the age of 
twenty-four he went to live in the famous lake 
region, where he rented the cottage known as 
Grasmere, which for eight years had been the 
home of Wordsworth. The latter now lived at the 



INTRODUCTION. 13 

other end of the lake and his house became a cen- 
tre for the meetings of Southey, Coleridge and 
De Quincey. For more than twenty years, this 
place, in one of the most charming sections of 
England, was De Quincey's home. During this 
time his life was made up of periods of hard study 
alternating with periods of dissipation in which he 
freely indulged his appetite and passed thi^ough the 
horrors and beatific visions which he has so vividly 
described in his wi'itings. 

In 1816 he married Margaret Simpson, the 
beautiful daughter of a neighboring farmer, who 
tenderly and unselfishly devoted her life to his 
service. For a time after his marriage he reduced 
his "daily rations" of opium from eight thousand 
to one thousand drops. The effect of this com- 
parative abstinence was magical. "The cloud of 
profoundest melancholy which had rested on his 
brain passed away." For a year, he resisted his 
imperious demon successfully. "It was a year," 
says he, "of brilliant water (to speak after the 
manner of Jewelers), set, as it were, and insulated 
in the gloomy umbrage of opium. ' ' But, after this 
all too short period, he returned to his old habits, 
and in the succeeding months he sank into the 
deepest gloom and horror of his life. So dark 



14 INTRODUCTION. 

were the memories of these years that when he 

comes to write of them in his Autobiography he 

says: 

"But now farewell, a long farewell to happiness, 
Winter or Summer! Farewell to smiles and 
laughter! Farewell to peace of mind! Farewell 
to hope and tranquil dreams, and to the blessed 
consolation^ of sleep ! For more than three years 
and a half I am summoned away from these; I 
am now arrived at the Iliad of woes." 

Fortunately for him, his inheritance was not large 
enough to provide for his family, and his necessities 
compelled him once more to curb his passion, and 
to turn to his pen for a livelihood. He soon be- 
came a constant contributor to the London Maga- 
zine^ and later to Blachwood'^s^ and to numerous 
other less prominent periodicals. In the first-named 
magazine appeared from time to time installments 
of his Confessions which attracted wide attention, 
and at once brought him literary fame and an 
increasing demand for his productions. Although 
his health was poor, he managed to produce a 
great amount and variety of literary work upon a 
surprisingly wide range of subjects, in each 
of which he proved himself not only an authority, 
but also a master. 

To be near the literary centre, he went to Lon- 
don. There he lived for some years in bachelor 



INTRODUCTION. 15 

quarters, with only an occasional visit to Grasmere, 
where his family still resided. His life was, as usual, 
a retired one. Yet, when he could be enticed from 
his lonely rooms to grace society, he entranced 
everyone. His j^^i'sonal appearance was not pre- 
possessing, and he was as careless of his clothing as 
Demosthenes is said to have been, yet, like the 
Grecian philosopher, when he began to speak, his 
phj^sical defects and his eccentricities Avere forgot- 
ten under the magnetic influence of his real self. 
His manners were charming, and his conversation 
brilliant. A contemporary speaks enthusiastically 
of his talk, ''its sweet and subtle ripple of anecdote 
and suggestion, and its witching splendor." 

The popularity of his writings soon became so 
great that certain Scotch publishers offered induce- 
ments which finally led him to transfer his 
activities from London to Edinburgh, where he 
spent the remainder of his life. Soon after his 
removal, his wife having died, he rented a cottage 
in the beautiful suburb of Lasswade, in which he 
installed his family. He himself retained his 
quarters in the city, and, although he frequently 
visited his children, the care of the family devolved 
upon his oldest daughter. He avoided, so far as 
possible, all association with his fellow-men, and 



16 INTRODUCTION. 

his only diversion from his exhausting literary work 
came from long country walks, in which he 
especially delighted. In such fashion, his lonely 
life continued until his death, December 8, 1859. 

CHRONOLOGICAL TABLE. 

1785. Born August 15, in Manchester. 
1799 (aged 14). At school in Bath. 
1801 (aged 16). At school in Manchester. 

1803 (aged 17). Euns away from school, and 
w^anders in Wales. 

1803 (aged 18). Enters Oxford University. 

1804 (aged 19). Begins to use opium. 

1809 (aged 24). Eents the Wordsworth cottage in 

Grasmere. 

1816 (aged 31). Marries Miss Margaret Simpson. 

1819 (aged 34). Begins to write for the Quarterhj 

Review, 

1821 (aged 36). In London. His family in 

Grasmere. Writes Confessions of an Englisli 

Opium-Eater^ which are published in the 

London Magazine. 

1826 (aged 41) . Writes for Blachwood'^s Magazine. 

1830 (aged 45). Eemoves to Edinburgh. 

1837 (aged 52). His wife dies. 

1840 (aged 55). Establishes his family in Lass- 

v^ade. 

1859 (aged 74). Dies, December 8. 



DE QUINOEY'S 
CHARACTEKISTICS AS A WRITER. 

It may be said of De Quincey, as it has been 
said of Browning, that his wTitings form a literature 
in themselves. Few writers, since the time of 
Ai'istotle, have covered so broad a field, and fewer 
still have been so thoroughly at home in every 
field of human thought and investigation. A mere 
glance at the table of contents of his collected 
works will reveal the versatility of his genius, and 
the breadth, if not the depth, of his learning. 
A single volume of his historical essays and 
researches contains such diverse titles as The 
Casuistry of Roman Meals, The Pagan Oracles^ 
The Essenes^ Secret Societies^ Greece under the 
Romans and The SuUotes. It is a far cry from the 
mysticism of his unearthly romances to the logical 
reasoning of his philosophical essays, and it is 
hardly possible to conceive of a greater contrast 
than that which exists between the humor and sar- 
casm of such essays as the one entitled Murder 
Considered as One of the Fine Arts^ and the pathos 
and emotion which characterize The Military 
Nun^ Joan of Arc^ and Levana and Our Ladies of 
Sorrow. Side by side in his works appear sober 
biographical and historical essays, and sketches of 
the most purely imaginative nature, such as The 

17 



18 INTRODUCTION. 

Daughter of Lebanon^ The Vision of Sudden 
Death,and the Dream Fugue, From the highest flight 
of imagination he could descend to questions of 
scholarship which were little short of freaks, as is 
well illustrated by the contrast between such 
works as The Ave7iger, and The Toilette of a 
Helreiu Lady, He ranges the earth, the sky, and 
the human heart, and^ to develop their hidden 
possibilities, he uses, with equal grace and power, 
wit, humor, pathos, passion, imagination, and all 
the arts of clear, strong and picturesque expression. 

He was pre-eminently a magazine writer, for he 
never wrote a book, and his works to-day consist of 
a compilation of innumerable articles collected from 
the various periodicals to which he contributed. Un- 
der such circumstances, sustained and exhaustive 
thought along any single line of inquiry was 
impossible, yet little of his work is fragmentary or 
unfinished. He wrote upon widely diverse sub- 
jects, yet he avoided the superficiality, which is 
usually the result of ranging over so wide a field, 
by his persistent reading, his retentive memory, 
and the originality and vigor of his intellectual 
powers. 

Both in style and thought, he was much influ- 
enced by his intimate acquaintance with the classi- 
cal languages and literatures, and he attained more 
fully than any other English author the majesty 
and gi'ace of the gi^eat masters of classical prose. 
He not only copies closely the great models of 



INTRODUCTION. 19 

antiquity in thought and style, but he also quotes 
freely from these sources, so that the student will 
find himself constantly surrounded by landmarks 
of Greece and Kome. 

De Quincey's diction was highly ornate^ The 
pages of his writings are thickly strewn with 
figures of speech. He uses metaphors, tropes, 
personifications, synecdoches, metonymies, and 
many others. His sentences are frequently long 
and involved. He makes an excessive use of Latin- 
ized and technical terms, yet his meaning is generally 
clear. His expression is always exact, and his style 
smooth and beautiful. 

Two quotations from well-known critics Avill per- 
haps give a clear idea of De Quincey's merits. 
Minto says : 

''The melody of De Qiiincey's prose is pre- 
eminently rich and stately. He takes rank with 
Milton as one of our greatest masters of stately 
cadence, as well as of sublime composition. If one 
may trust one's ear for a general impression, 
Milton's melody is sweeter and more varied; but 
for magnificent effects, at least in prose, the palm 
must be assigned to De Quincey. In some of 
De Quincey's grandest passages, the language can 
be compared only to the swell and crash of an 
orchestra. It need hardly be added that the har- 
mony between his rhythm and his subject-matter is 
most striking in the sublime flights." 

Note. — The student is referred to Minto's Manual 
of English Prose Lite'yature for a fuller discussion of 
De Quincey's style. 



20 INTRODUCTION. 

What Corson says in The Aims of Literary 
Study ^ is even more to the point : 

''For range of power, for great diversity of sub- 
ject, for poetic, philosophic, and logical cast of 
mind, for depth of feeling, for an inspiring vitality 
of thinking, for periodic and impassioned prose, 
which, running through the whole gamut of 
expression, is unequaled in English literature, no 
more educating author could be selected for 
advanced students than Thomas De Quincey. A 
good education in the language as a living organ- 
ism could be got through his wi'itings alone ; and 
his wealth and vitality of thought and feeling could 
hardly fail, unless opposed by extraordinary obtuse- 
ness, to excite and enliven, and strengthen the best 
faculties of thought and feeling in any reader." 

The student will also be interested in De Quin- 
cey 's own classification of his i\Titings. He says : 

"Taking as the basis of my remarks the collec- 
tive American edition, I will here attempt a rude 
general classification of all the articles which com- 
pose it. I distribute them grossly into three 
classes : 

First, into that class which proposes primarily 
to amuse the reader ; but which, in doing so, may 
or may not happen occasionally to reach a higher 
station, at which the amusement passes into an 
impassioned interest. Some papers are merely 
playful; but others have a mixed character. These 
present AutoMographic Sketches illustrate what I 
mean. Generally, they pretend to but little 
beyond that sort of amusement which attaches to 
any real story, thoughtfully and faithfully related, 
moving through a succession of scenes sufficiently 



INTRODUCTION. 21 

varied, that are not suffered to remain too long 
before the eye, and that connect themselves at every 
stage with intellectual objects. But, even here, I 
do not scruple to claim from the reader, occasion- 
ally, a higher consideration. At times, the narra- 
tive rises into a far higher key. 

Into the second class, I throw those papers which 
address themselves purely to the understanding as 
an insulated faculty, or do so primarily. Let me 
call them by the general name of essays. These, 
as in other cases of the same kind, must have their 
value measured by two separate questions. A, 
What is the problem, and of what rank in dignity 
or use, which the essay undertakes? And next, 
that point being settled, B, What is the success 
obtained? And (as a separate question), What is 
the executive ability displayed in the solution of 
the problem? This latter question is naturally no 
question for myself, as the answer would involve a 
verdict upon my own merit. But, generally, 
there will be quite enough in the answer to ques- 
tion A, for establishing the value of any essay upon 
the soundest basis. Skillfully to fi'ame your ques- 
tion, is half way towards insm'ing the true answer. 
Two or three of the problems treated in these 
essays, I will here rehearse" [De Quincey here cites, 
as examples of the kind of writings to which he 
refers in the second class, his essays upon the fol- 
lowing subjects: Essenism^ The Caesars^ and 
Cicero]. ''These specimens are sufficient for the 
purpose of informing the reader that I do not wi'ite 
without a thoughtful consideration of my subject ; 
and, also, that to think reasonably upon any ques- 
tion, has never been allowed by me as a sufficient 
ground for Avi'iting upon it unless I believed myself 
able to offer some considerable novelty. Generally, 



22 INTEODUCTION. 

I claim (not arrogantly, but with &mness), the 
merit of rectification applied to absolute errors, or 
to injurious limitations of the truth. 

Finally, as a third class, and in virtue of their 
aim, as a far higher class of compositions, included 
in the American collection, I rank the Confessio7is 
of an Opium-Eater^ and, also, but more emphat- 
ically, the Suspiria de Profundis, On these, as 
modes of impassioned prose, ranging under no 
precedents that I am aware of in any literature, it 
is much more difficult to speak justly, whether in 
a hostile or friendly character. As yet, neither of 
these two works has ever received the least degree 
of that correction and pruning which both require 
so extensively; and of the Suspiria^ not more 
than perhaps one-third has yet been printed. 
When both have been fully revised, I shall feel 
myself entitled to ask for a more determinate 
adjudication upon their claims as works of art. 
At present, I feel authorized to make haughtier 
pretensions in right of their conception than I shall 
venture to do, under peril of being supposed to 
characterize their execiUion. Two remarks only I 
shall address to the equity of my reader: First, I 
desire to remind him of the perilous difficulty 
besieging all attempts to clothe in words the 
visio]]ary scenes derived from the world of di'eams, 
where a single false note, a single word in a wrong 
key, ruins the whole music ; and, secondly, I desire 
him to consider the utter sterility of universal 
literature in this one departm.ent of impassioned 
prose, which certainly argues some singular diffi- 
culty, suggesting a singular duty of indulgence in 
criticising any attempt that even imperfectly suc- 
ceeds. The sole Confessions, belonging to past 
times, that have at all succeeded in engaging the 



INTRODUCTION. 23 

attention of men, are those of St. Augustine and 
of Eousseau. The very idea of breathing a record 
of human passion, not into the ear of the random 
crowd, but of the saintly confessional, argues an 
impassioned theme. Impassioned, therefore, 
should be the tenor of the composition. Xow, in 
St. Augustine's Confessions is found one most 
impassioned passage, viz., the lamentation for the 
death of his youthful friend, in the fourth book ; 
one, and no more. Farther, there is nothing. In 
Eousseau, there is not even so much. In the 
whole work, there is nothing grandly affecting but 
the character and the inexplicable misery of the 
writer." 



THE EEVOLT OF A TAETAR TRIBE. 

De Quincey's historical essays are written mainly 
upon topics which fall outside the range of the 
ordinary reader, and many of them required much 
patient research for their preparation. The Revolt 
of a Tartar Tribe is a case in point. It deals 
with an obscure Tartar tribe located in the midst 
of the vast expanse of the Russian Empire, and 
surrounded by other tribes of rival, often hostile, 
and always uncivilized people. Too small a unit 
in the constitution of Russia to enter conspicuously 
into its annals, its history, if written at all, is so 
entangled in the vague and untrustworthy tradi- 
tions of the various countries with which it had 
allied itself from time to time, that to write any- 
thing like a connected account, even of a single 
decade in its life, seemed almost a hopeless task. 
Yet, to De Quincey, the theme was a peculiarly 
attractive one. The meteoric flight of a nation 
across the breadth of a continent, opposed by the 
most stupendous natural obstacles, and beset by 
a savage foe, is one of the most spectacular events in 
all history, and it appealed with gTeat force to his 
romantic nature. Accordingly, the narrative is 

Note. — This sketch first appeared in Blackwood' s 
Magazine for July, 1837. 

25 



26 INTRODUCTION. 

that of no mere chronicler. Although the main 
facts are authentic, they are treated with the warm 
sympathy of the romancer, rather than with 
the cold impartiality of the historian. In strength 
of portrayal and vividness of coloring, if not in 
accuracy of historic statement, it excels the 
Anabasis of Xenophon, the only classic with which 
it may be compared on anything like equal terms. 
Such a piece of work must be studied, not merely 
for its thought, but also as an illustration of the 
genius of its author and his wonderful power of 
expression. 

A brief sketch of the various barbarian tribes, 
pursuers, and pursued, which appear in the essay, 
is placed here that the pupil may not be obliged 
to stop in the course of his reading to discover who 
are the Kalmucks, and who are the various tribes, 
Cossacks, Bashkirs, and Kirghises, which hang 
upon the outskirts of the fleeing nation. There is 
not room to give a connected account of all these 
tribes of Asiatic origin to whom De Quincey refers, 
but sufficient information is given below to enable 
the student to follow the narrative intelligently. 
For further study, see '^ Tartar s^^'* in the 
Encyclopwdia Britannica^ or Howerth's History of 
the Mongols, 

From the early part of the Christian era to the 
end of the Middle Ages, Europe was repeatedly 
invaded by vast hordes of barbarians from the 
central and eastern parts of Asia. Under various 



INTRODUCTION. 27 

names, such as Mongols, Tartars, Turks, and 
IIuiis, they overran eastern and central Europe, 
devastated the country, and plundered and mur- 
dered its inhabitants. Even Eome itself, trium- 
phant over every other foe, was forced to yield its 
supremacy to their undisciplined power. Although 
a nomadic people, with restless and wandering 
dispositions, many of them settled in Europe, and 
gradually became a pai't of its fixed population. 
Their descendants are found, to some extent, in 
many countries, but are settled mainly in Eussia, 
Turkey, Poland, and Hungary. Of then' tribal 
names, the most important for us is the word Tartar, 
because De Quincey, perhaps erroneously, calls the 
Kalmuck tribe whose fligh the records, the Torgot- 
Tartars. 

1 The word Tali-tar was fii'st applied to those 
Mongolian tribes, which in early times descended 
from the Altai plateaus into the Chinese lowlands, 
to plunder their peaceful inhabitants. Y/hen 
Genghis Khan, in the thirteenth century, brought 
these tribes under his sway, and led them into 
Europe, they were given the name of Tartar, with 
an allusion, perhaps, to the Tai'tarus of the 

3 ancients. This invasion of the Mongol-Tartars 
was probably the most gigantic warlike movement 
in all history. Beginning with Chinese Tartary, 
they overran nearly all of habitable Asia, and 
extended their conquests westward into Europe as 
far as Poland, adding nearly all of Eussia to their 



38 INTRODUCTION. 

dominions. No nation or city was powerful enough 
to resist their onset, and their victories were never 
complete until the opposing forces were utterly 
annihilated. They swept away rich and populous 
cities and depopulated vast tracts of land, in 
order, as they said, that their flocks and herds 
might freely feed upon grass w^hose green was free 
from dusty feet. From 1211 to 1223, no less than 
eighteen millions of people perished at their hands 
in China alone. But finally, as was natural, their 
vast empire fell to pieces, and the various Tartar 
tribes became almost inextricably mixed with 
other nations. Accordingly, in the present use of 
the word Tartar, there is much confusion. R. Gr. 
Latham, in The Nationalities of Europe^ says: 
''The populations in question (the remnants, in 
southern Russia and Siberia, of the great Mongol 
empire), belong to one of three great groups, stocks 
or families — the Turk, the Mongol, or the Tungus. 
When we speak of a Tartar, he belongs to the first; 
whenever we speak of a Kalmuck, he belongs to 
the second of these divisions." In general, it may 
be said, that the name Tartar belongs to nearly 
three million inhabitants of the Russian Empire, 
who are remnants of the great Mongol invasion of 
the thirteenth century. 

Apparently, the tribe called Kalmucks, or 
Torgot-Tartars, whose exodus De Quincey records, 
are Mongols, not Tartars. But the question is 
so confused that it is perhaps best to remember 



INTRODUCTION. 29 

merely that they are certainly Asiatics, and 
closely allied to the Tartars. The name Kalmuck 
means renegade. It is at present applied to a 
Mongolian or Mongol-Tartar people who inhabit 
large regions of the Chinese and Eussian domin- 
ions. They are a nomadic race, and possess con- 
siderable wealth in herds of cattle, horses, sheep, 
and camels. There are, of course, many Kalmuck 
tribes. The tribe which forms the subject of this 
sketch originally inhabited the district between the 
desert of Gobi and Lake Tengis, in central Asia. 
In 1636 about two hundred thousand men and 
women left their homes, and migrated to the great 
steppes which border upon the Volga Eiver. For 
a time, they maintained a desultory warfare with 
their neighbors; but in 1655 they passed, of their 
own accord, under the Russian authority. Several 
times they furnished important contingents to the 
Eussian armies, but were always regarded with 
suspicion by the rulers of their adopted country. 
During the reign of Catherine they became so 
excited by their wrongs, real or imaginary, that 
they determined upon the gi^eat migration which 
De Quincey has so splendidly pictured in this 
sketch. 

In pursuit of the fleeing tribes, the Eussian 
government started not only a Eussian army, but 
also avast horde of semi-civilized tribes, whose land 
bordered on those of the Kalmucks, and who had, 
for the unfortunate fugitives a fierce, hereditary 



30 INTRODUCTION. 

hatred. The most notable among them w^^ne 
Cossacks, who though of doubtful origin, are 
probably descendants of the Eussian refugees 
who fled to the swamps at the mouth of the Don, 
to escape the Mongols when the latter invaded the 
country in the thirteenth century. These 
refugees, however, afterwards became amalgamated 
with the Tartars and Kalmucks, and became almost 
as lawless, desperate and nomadic as their con- 
querors. They now form a restless and warlike 
race, whose subjugation by Eussia extended 
through centuries, and left them with many special 
privileges. They are skillful horsemen, and form 
the larger part of the Eussian cavalry. 

The Bashkirs (Baash-Keerz), the second set of 
barbarian pursuers, are a Tartar -Finnish race, 
who inhabit the slopes of the Ural Mountains, 
and the adjacent plains. Originally they formed 
a powerful independent state, but submitted to 
Eussia in 1556, and were incorporated in her 
dominions. 

To them and to the Cossacks Eussia joined the 
Kirghises, a race of Mongol-Tartars, who occu- 
pied a vast territory stretching from the Caspian 
vSea to the Altai Mountains. They were a nomadic 
people, and, at the beginning of the present century, 
well merited the title of the "slave hunters of the 
steppes," from their custom of attacking caravans, 
and selling their prisoners as slaves. 



BIBLIOGEAPHY OF BIOGRAPHICAL AND 

CRITICAL WORKS RELATING 

TO DE QUINCEY. 

De Quincey, in Englisli Men of Letters Series^ by 
David Masson. 

De Quincey, in George Saintsbury's Essays in 
English Literature, 1780-1860, 

De Quincey' s Life and Writings with Letters. 
Two volumes. H. A. Page. 

Biographical Sketches, by Harriet Martineau. 

Hours with Men and Boohs, William Mathews. 

The Literary History of England, Volume 11. 
Mrs. Oliphant. 

Illustrations of Genius, in Some of its Relations 
to Culture and Society, Henry Giles. 

Hours in a Library, Volume I. Leslie Stephen. 

Essays, Biographical and Critical: Chiefly on 
English Poets. David Masson. 

Word Portraits of Famous Writers, edited by 
Mabel E. Wotton. 

Personal Traits of British Authors, edited by 
Edward T. Mason. 

Note — The collected works of Thomas De Quincey are 

published in a series of fourteen volumes by Macmillan 

& Co. They have been carefully edited by Professor 

David Masson. 

31 



SUGGESTIVE QUESTIONS. 

The following questions are mere indications of 
lines of study which may be extended as far as time 
serves : 

1. State briefly the leading events in De Quin- 
cey's life. 

2. Mention some of his personal peculiarities. 

3. AVould these peculiarities influence his writ- 
ings? If so, in what way? 

4. What purpose did he seem to have in mind in 
writing the Tartar Tribe ? 

5. What are some of the characteristics of his 
style as they appear in this essay? 

6. Is there an unusual number of long words? 
From what language are the most of these words 
derived? - 

7. What qualities does his choice of words impart 
to his writings? 

8. Have you noticed any words which are used 
in an unusual sense? If so, can you in each case 
state whether this is the primitive meaning? 

9. Select several sentences in which words of 
classical origin predominate. Substitute for these 
words, Anglo-Saxon expressions. Is there any 
gain? any loss? 

10. Do you notice any peculiarities of sentence- 

32 



INTRODUCTION. 33 

structure? If so, what are they? How do they 
aflEect the meaning? 

11. Is the following quotation a good estimate of 
De Quincey's sentences? ''His (De Quincey's) 
sentences are stately and elaborate, crowded with 
qualifying clauses and parenthetical allusions to 
a degree unparalleled among modern ^vriters. " — 
Minto, Cite instances supporting your view. 

12. Does this tendency to discursiveness result 
in a sacrifice of unity, clearness or strength in 
De Quincey^s sentences? Cite examples in support 
of your conclusion. 

13. How would j^ou characterize the author's 
powers of description as used in this essay? 

14. Would you accept the story as authentic his- 
tory, or has the author allowed his imagination to 
color and distort the facts? Support your judg- 
ment in this matter by citations. 

15. What passage do you consider the most effect- 
ive? W^hy? 

16. Do you think the style of the author well 
adapted to historical writing? Give reasons for 
your answer. 

17. Does this essay give you any suggestion as to 
the personality of the writer? 

18. Is it possible to divide this essay into intro- 
duction, body of the work, and conclusion? If 
so, indicate these divisions. 

19. What purpose does the introduction serve? 
Does it give any outline of the thought? Does 



34 INTRODUCTION. 

it in any way appeal to the sympathies of the 
reader? 

20. Make a brief outline of the body of the work. 

21. Examine carefully the paragraph structure 
with reference to unity, clearness, strength, and 
coherence. Is the central idea of each paragraph 
clearly brought out, or is it obscured by compara- 
tively irrelevant sentences? Is the transition from 
one paragraph to another generally abrupt, or is it 
easy and harmonious? 

22. Do you observe any passages which seem to 
be thrown in merely for effect? 

23. What does the author attempt to do in the 
conclusion? Does he recapitulate the narrative, or 
does he strive in some other way to leave a strong 
impression on the mind of the reader? 

24. How is the conclusion related to the rest of 
the essay? 

25. After your study of this essay, do you con- 
clude that the author intended it to be a real con- 
tribution to historical literature, or did he write it 
merely to interest and amuse his readers? 

26. What have you gained from the study of this 

7? 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 

OR, FLIGHT OF THE KALMUCK KHAN AND HIS PEOPLE 

FROM THE RUSSIAN TERRITORIES TO THE 

FRONTIERS OF CHINA. 

There is no great event in modern history, or, 
perhaps it may be said more broadly, none in aU 
history from its earliest records, less generally 
known, or more striking to the imagination, than 

5 the flight eastwaixls of a principal Tartar nation 
across the boundless steppes of Asia in the latter 
half of the last centm-y. The terminus a quo of 
this flight, and the terminus ad quem^ are equally 
magnificent; the mightiest of Christian thrones 

10 being the one, the mightiest of pagan the other. 
And the grandeur of these two terminal objects is 
harmoniously supported by the romantic circum- 
stances of the flight. In the abruptness of its 
commencement, and the fierce velocity of its exe- 

15 cution, we read the wild barbaric character of those 
who conducted the movement. In the unity 
of purpose connecting this myidad of wills, and 
in the blind but unerring aim at a mark so 
remote, there is something which recalls to 

20 the mind those almighty instincts that propel 
the migi'ations of the swallow and the lemming, 
or the life-withering marches of the locust. Then, 
again, in the gloomy vengeance of Eussia and her 

35 



36 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

vast artillery, which hung upon the rear and the 
skirts of the fugitive vassals, we are reminded of 
jMiltonic images — such, for instance, as that of the 
solitary hand pm^suing through desert spaces and 
through ancient chaos a rebellious host, and over- 5 
taking with volleying thunders those who believe 
themselves already within the security of darkness 
and of distance. 

I shall have occasion, farther on, to compare this 
event with other great national catastrophes as to 10 
the magnitude of the suffering. But it may also 
challenge a comparison with similar events under 
another relation, viz., as to its di^amatic capabili- 
ties. Few cases, perhaps, in romance or history, 
can sustain a close collation with this as to the is 
complexity of its separate interests. The great 
outline of the enterprise, taken in connection with 
the operative motives, hidden or avowed, and the 
religious sanctions under which it was pursued, 
give to the case a triple character : — First, That of 30 
a conspiracy^ with as close a unity in the incidents, 
and as much of a personal interest in the moving 
characters, with fine di'amatic contrasts, as belongs 
to "Venice Preserved," or to the " Fiesco " of 
Schiller. Secondly, That of a great military expedi- 25 
tion, offering the same romantic features of vast dis- 
tances to be traversed, vast reverses to be sustained, 
untried routes, enemies obscurely ascertained, and 
hardshij)s too vaguely prefigured, which mark 
the Egyptian expedition of Cambyses — which mark so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 37 

the anabasis of the younger Cyrus, and the subse- 
quent retreat of the ten thousand — which mark the 
Parthian expeditions of the Eomans, especially 
those of Crassus and Julian — or (as more disastrous 

5 than any of them, and, in point of space as well as 
in amount of forces, more extensive) the Russian 
anabasis and katabasis of Napoleon. Thirdly, that 
of a religious Exodus^ authorized by an oracle 
venerated throughout many nations of Asia — an 

10 Exodus, therefore, in so far resembling the gi'eat 
Scriptural Exodus of the Israelites, under Moses 
and Joshua, as well as in the very peculiar distinc- 
tion of carrying along with them their entire 
families, women, children, slaves, their herd of 

15 cattle and of sheep, their horses and their camels. 

This triple character of the enterprise naturally 

invests it with a more comprehensive interest. 

But the dramatic interest which I have ascribed to 

it, or its fitness for a stage representation, depends 

20 partly upon the marked variety and the strength 
of the personal agencies concerned, and partly upon 
the succession of scenical situations. Even the 
steppes, the camels, the tents, the snowy and the 
sandy deserts, are not beyond the scale of our 

25 modern representative powers, as often called into 
action in the theatres both of Paris and London ; 
and the series of situations unfolded — beginning 
with the general conflagration on the Wolga — 
passing thence to the disastrous scenes of the flight 

30 (as it literally was in its commencement) — ^to the 



38 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Tartar siege of the Eussian fortress Koiilagina — 
the bloody engagement with the Cossacks in the 
mountain passes at Ouchim — the surprisal by 
the Bashkirs, and the advanced posts of the Russian 
army at Torgai — the private conspiracy at this 5 
point against the Khan — ^the long succession of run- 
ning fights — the parting massacres at the Lake of 
Tengis under the eyes of the Chinese — and finally, 
the tragical retribution to Zebek-Dorchi at the 
hunting lodge of the Chinese Emperor ; — all these 10 
situations communicate a scenical animation to the 
wild romance, if treated dramatically; whilst a 
higher and a philosophic interest belongs to it as a 
case of authentic history, commemorating a great 
revolution for good and for evil in the fortunes of 15 
a whole people — a people semi-barbarous, but 
simple-hearted and of ancient descent. 

On the 21st of January, 1761, the young Prince 
Oubacha assumed the sceptre of the Kalmucks 20 
upon the death of his father. Some part of the 
power attached to this dignity he had already 
wielded since his fourteenth year, in quality of 
Vice-Khan, by the express appointment and with 
the avowed support of the Russian Government. 25 
He was now about eighteen years of age, amiable 
in his personal character, and not without titles to 
respect in his public character as a sovereign 
prince. In times more peaceable, and amongst a 
people more entirely civilized, or more humanized 3o 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 39 

by religion, it is even jirobable that he might have 
discharged his high duties with considerable dis- 
tinction. But his lot was thrown upon stormy 
times, and a most difficult crisis amongst tribes 

5 whose native ferocity was exasperated by debasing 
forms of superstition, and by a nationality as well 
as an inflated conceit of their own merit absolutely 
unparalleled, whilst the circumstances of their hard 
and trying position under the jealous siirveillance 

10 of an irresistible lord paramount, in the person of 
the Eussian Czar, gave a fiercer edge to the natural 
unamiableness of the Kalmuck disposition, and 
irritated its gloomier qualities into action under 
the restless impulses of suspicion and permanent 

15 distrust. ISTo prince could hope for a cordial 
allegiance from his subjects or a peaceful reign 
under the circumstances of the case; for the 
dilemma in whicli a Kalmuck ruler stood at pres- 
ent was of this nature : iimnting the sanction and 

20 support of the Czar, he was ineyitably too weak 
from without to command confidence from his sub- 
jects, or resistance to his competitors; on the other 
hand, ivWi this kind of support, and deriving his 
title in any degree from the favor of the Imperial 

25 Court, he became almost in that extent an object 
of hatred at home, and within the whole compass 
of his own territory. He was at once an object 
of hatred for the past, being a living monument of 
national independence ignominiously surrendered, 

30 and an object of jealousy for the future, as one 



40 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

who had already advertised himself to be a fitting 
tool for the ultimate pm*poses (whatsoever those 
might prove to be) of the Russian Court. Coming 
himself to the Kalmuck sceptre under the heaviest 
weight of prejudice from the unfortunate circum- 5 
stances of his position, it might have been expected 
that Oubacha w^ould have been pre-eminently an 
object of detestation; for, besides his known 
dependence upon the Cabinet of St. Petersburg, 
the direct line of succession had been set aside, 10 
and the principle of inheritance violently sus- 
pended, in favor of his own father, so recently as 
nineteen years before the era of his own accession, 
consequently within the lively remembrance of the 
existing generation. He therefore, almost equally 15 
with his father, stood within the full current of the 
national prejudices, and might have anticipated 
the most pointed hostility. But it was not so; 
such are the caprices in human affairs that he w^as 
even, in a moderate sense, popular — a benefit which 20 
wore the more cheering aspect, and the promises of 
permanence, inasmuch as he owed it exclusively to 
his personal qualities of kindness and affability, as 
well as to the beneficence of his government. On 
the other hand, to balance this unlooked-for pros- 85 
perity at the outset of his reign, he met with a 
rival in popular favor — almost a competitor — in the 
person of Zebek-Dorchi, a prince with considerable 
pretensions to the throne, and perhaps, it might 
be said, with equal pretensions. Zebek-Dorchi so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 41 

was a direct descendant of the same royal house as 
himself, through a different branch. On public 
grounds, his claim stood, perhaps, on a footing 
equally good with that of Oubacha, whilst his per- 

5 sonal qualities, even in those aspects which seemed 
to a philosophical observer most odious and repul- 
sive, promised the most effectual aid to the dark 
polyposes of an intriguer or a conspirator, and 
were generally fitted to win a popular support 

10 precisely in those points where Oubacha was most 
defective. He was much superior in external 
appeai'ance to his rival on the throne, and so far 
better qualified to win the good opinion of a 
semi -barbarous people; whilst his dark intellec- 

15 tual qualities of Machiavelian dissimulation, pro- 
found hy230crisy and perfidy which knew no touch 
of remorse, were admirably calculated to sustain 
any ground which he might win from the simple- 
hearted people with whom he had to deal, and 

20 fi^om the frank carelessness of his unconscious 
competitor. 

At the very outset of his treacherous career, 
Zebek-Dorchi was sagacious enough to perceive 
that nothing could be gained by open declaration 

25 of hostility to the reigning prince ; the choice had 
been a deliberate act on the part of Eussia, and 
Elizabeth Petrowna was not the person to recall 
her own favors with levity or upon slight grounds. 
Openly, therefore, to have declared his enmity 

30 towards his relative on tlie throne could have liad 



42 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

no effect but that of arming suspicions against his 
own ulterior purposes in a quarter where it was 
most essential to his interest that, for the present, 
all suspicion should be hoodwinked. Accordingly, 
after much meditation, the course he took for 5 
opening his snares was this: — He raised a rumor 
that his own life was in danger from the plots of 
several Saissang (that is Kalmuck nobles) who were 
leagued together under an oath to assassinate him ; 
and immediately after, assuming a well-counter- 10 
feited alarm, he fled to Tcherkask, followed by 
sixty-five tents. From this place he kept up a 
correspondence with the Imperial Court ; and, by 
way of soliciting his cause more effectually, he soon 
repaired in person to St. Petersburg. Once 15 
admitted to personal conferences with the cabinet, 
he found no difficulty in winning over the Russian 
counsels to a concurrence with some of his politi- 
cal views, and thus covertly introducing the point 
of that wedge which was finally to accomplish his 20 
purposes. In particular, he persuaded the Rus- 
sian Government to make a very important altera- 
tion in the constitution of the Kalmuck State 
Council which in effect reorganized the whole 
political condition of the state, and disturbed the 25 
balance of power as previously adjusted. Of this 
council — in the Kalmuck language called Sarga — 
there Avere eight members, called Sargatchi ; and 
hitherto it had been the custom that these eight 
members should be entirelv subordinate to the 3p 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 43 

Khan; holding, in fact, the ministerial character 
of secretaries and assistants, but in no respect acting 
as co-ordinate authorities. That had produced 
some inconveniences in former reigns ; and it was 

5 easy for Zebek-Dorchi to point the jealousy of the 
Russian Court to others more serious, which might 
arise in future circumstances of war or other con- 
tingencies. It wasresolyed, therefore, to place the 
Sargatclii henceforwards on a footing of perfect 

10 independence, and therefore (as regarded responsi- 
bility) on a footing of equality with the Khan. 
Their independence, however, had respect only to 
theh' own sovereign ; for towards Russia they were 
placed in a new attitude of direct duty and account- 

15 ability by the creation in their favor of small pen- 
sions (300 roubles a year), which, however, to a 
Kalmuck of that day vrere more considerable than 
might be supposed, and had a farther value as 
marks of honorai'y distinction emanating from a 

20 great empress. Thus far the purposes of Zebek- 
Dorchi were served effectually for the moment; 
but apparently it was only for the moment ; since, 
in the further development of his plots, this very 
dependency upon Russian influence would be the 

25 most serious obstacle in his way. There was, how- 
ever, another point carried which outv\^eighed all 
inferior considerations, as it gave him a power of 
setting aside discretionally whatsoever should arise 

Line 7. — Other contingencies. To what contingen- 
cies does the author here refer? 



44 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

to disturb his plots; he was himself appointed 
President and Controller of the Sargatchi. The 
Eussian Court had been aware of his high preten- 
sions by birth, and hoped by this promotion to 
satisfy the ambition which, in some degree, was 5 
acknowledged to be a reasonable passion for any 
man occupying his situation. 

Having thus completely blindfolded the Cabinet 
of Eussia, Zebek-Dorchi proceeded in his new 
character to fulfil his political mission with the 10 
Khan of the Kalmucks. So artfully did he pre- 
pare the road for his favorable reception at the 
court of this prince that he was at once and uni- 
versally welcomed as a benefactor. The pensions of 
the councillors were so much additional wealth 15 
poured into the Tartar exchequer ; as to the ties of 
dependency thus created, experience had not yet 
enlightened these simple tribes as to that result. 
And that he himself should be the chief of these 
mercenary councillors was so far from being so 
charged upon Zebek as any offence or any ground 
of suspicion that his relative the Khan returned 
him hearty thanks for his services, under the belief 
that he could have accepted this appointment only 
with a view to keep out other and more unwelcome 25 
pretenders, who would not have had the same 
motives of consanguinity or friendship for execu- 
ting its duties in a spirit of kindness to the Kal- 
mucks. The first use which he made of his new 
functions about the Khan's person was to attack so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 45 

the Court of Russia, by a romantic villainy not easy 
to be credited, for those very acts of interference 
with the council which he himself had prompted. 
This was a dangerous step ; but it was indispen- 

6 sable to his further advance upon the gloomy path 
which he had traced out for himself. A triple 
vengeance was what he meditated. First, upon 
the Russian Cabinet, for having undervalued his 
own pretensions to the throne; second, upon his 

10 amiable rivaL for having supplanted him ; and 
third, upon all those of the nobility who had mani- 
fested their sense of his weakness by their neglect, 
or their sense of his perfidious character by their 
suspicions. Here was a colossal outline of wicked- 

15 ness ; and by one in his situation, feeble (as it 
might seem) for the accomplishment of its 
humblest parts, how was the total edifice to be 
reared in its comprehensive gi^andeur? He, a 
worm as he was, could he venture to assail the 

20 mighty behemoth of Muscovy, the potentate who 
counted three hundred languages around the foot- 
steps of his throne, and from whose "lion ramp" 
recoiled alike ''ba]3tized and infidel" — Christen- 
dom on the one side, strong by her intellect and 

25 her organization, and the ''Barbaric East" on the 
other, with her unnumbered numbers? The match 
was a monstrous one ; but in its very monstrosity 
there lay this germ of encouragement, that it could 

Line i. — Romantic villainy. In what sense is this 
phrase used? 



46 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

not be suspected. The very hopelessness of the 
scheme grounded his hope, and he resolved to exe- 
cute a vengeance which should involve, as it were, 
in the unity of a well-laid tragic fable, all whom 
he judged to be his enemies. That vengeance lay 5 
in detaching from the Eussian Empire the whole 
Kalmuck nation, and breaking up that system of 
intercourse which had thus far been beneficial to 
both. This last was a consideration which moved 
him but little. True it was, that Eussia to the lo 
Kalmucks had secured lands and extensive pastur- 
age ; true it was, that the Kalmucks reciprocally to 
Eussia had furnished a powerful cavalry. But the 
latter loss would be part of his triumph, and the 
former might be more than compensated in other 15 
climates under other sovereigns. Here was a 
scheme which, in its final accomplishment, would 
avenge him bitterly on the Czarina, and in the 
course of its accomplishment might furnish him 
with ample occasions for removing his other 20 
enemies. It may be readily supposed, indeed, that 
he who could deliberately raise his eyes to the 
Eussian autocrat as an antagonist in single duel 
with himself was not likely to feel much anxiety 
about Kalmuck enemies of whatever rank. He 25 
took his resolution, therefore, sternly and irrevo- 
cably, to effect this astonishing translation of an 
ancient people across the pathless deserts of Central 
Asia, intersected continually by rapid rivers, rarely 
furnished with bridges, and of which the fords 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 47 

were known only to those who might think it for 
their interest to conceal them, through many 
nations inhospitable or hostile, frost and snow 
around them (from the necessity of commencing 
5 their flight in winter) famine in their front, and 
the sabre, or even the artillery of an offended and 
mighty Empress hanging upon their rear for 
thousands of miles. But what was to be their final 
mark — the port of shelter after so feai'ful a course 

10 of wandering? Two things were evident : it must 
be some power at a great distance from Eussia, so 
as to make return even in that view hopeless ; and 
it must be a power of sufficient rank to insure them 
protection from any hostile efforts on the part of 

15 the Czarina for reclaiming them, or for chastising 
their revolt. Both conditions were united obvi- 
ously in the person of Kien Long, the reigning 
Emperor of China, who was further recommended 
' to them by his respect for the head of their religion. 

20 To China, therefore, and, as their first rendezvous, 

to the shadow of the gi'eat Chinese Wall, it was 

settled by Zebek that they should direct their flight. 

Xext came the question of time — ivlien should 

the flight commence? And finally, the more deli- 

25 cate question as to the choice of accomplices. To 
extend the knowledge of the conspiracy too far was 
to insure its betrayal to the Russian Government. 
Yet, at some stage of the pre23arations, it was evi- 
dent that a very extensive confidence must be 

30 made, because in no other way could the mass of 



48 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

the Kalmuck population be persuaded to furnish 
their families with the requisite equipments for so 
long a migration. This critical step, however, it 
was resolved to defer up to the latest possible 
moment, and, at all events, to make no general 5 
communication on the subject until the time of 
departure should be definitely settled. In the 
meantime Zebek admitted only three persons to his 
confidence, of whom Oubacha, the reigning prince, 
was almost necessarily one; but him, from his lo 
yielding and somewhat feeble character, he viewed 
rather in the light of a tool than as one of his 
active accomplices. Those whom (if anybody) he 
admitted to an unreserved participation in his coun- 
sels were two only, the great Lama among the Kal- is 
mucks, and his own father-in-law, Erempel, a rul- 
ing prince of some tribe in the neighborhood of 
the Caspian Sea, recommended to his favor not so 
much by any strength of talent corresponding to 
the occasion as by his blind devotion to himself and 20 
his passionate anxiety to promote the elevation of 
his daughter and his son-in-law to the throne of a 
sovereign prince. A titular prince Zebek already 
was; but this dignity, without the substantial 
accompaniment of a sceptre, seemed but an empty 25 
sound to both of these ambitious rebels. The 
other accomplice, whose name was Loosan-Dchalt- 
zan, and whose rank was that of Lama, or Kalmuck 
pontiff, was a person of far more distinguished 
pretensions ; he had something of the same gloomy so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 49 

and terrific pride which marked the character of 
Zebek himself, manifesting also the same energy, 
accompanied by the same unfaltering cruelty, and 
a natural facility of dissimulation even more pro- 

5 found. It was by this man that the other question 
was settled, as to the time for giving effect to their 
designs. His own pontifical character had sug- 
gested to him that, in order to strengthen their 
influence with the vast mob of simple-minded men 

10 whom they were to lead into a howling wilderness, 
after persuading them to lay desolate their own 
ancient hearths, it was indispensable that they 
should be able, in cases of extremity, to plead the 
express sanction of God for their entire enterprise. 

15 This could only be done by addi^essing themselves 
to the great head of their religion, the Dalai-Lama 
of Tibet. Him they easily persuaded to counte- 
nance their schemes; and an oracle was delivered 
solemnly at Tibet to the effect that no ultimate 

20 prosperity would attend this great Exodus unless it 
were pursued through the years of the tiger and 
the hare, Now, the Kalmuck customx is to dis- 
tinguish their years by attaching to each a denomi- 
nation taken from one of twelve animals, the exact 

25 order of succession being absolutely fixed, so that 
the cycle revolves, of course, through a period of a 
dozen years. Consequently, if the approaching 
year of the tiger were suffered to escape them, in 
that case the expedition must be delayed for twelve 

30 years more ; within which period, even were no other 



50 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

unfavorable changes to arise, it was pretty well 
foreseen that the Eussian Government would take 
the most effectual means for bridling their vagrant 
propensities by a ring-fence of forts or military 
posts ; to say nothing of the still readier plan for 5 
securing their fidelity (a plan already talked of in 
all quarters) by exacting a large body of hostages 
selected from the families of the most influential 
nobles. On these cogent considerations, it was 
solemnly determxined that this terrific experiment lo 
should be made in the next year of the tiger ^ which 
happened to fall upon the Christian year 1771. 
With respect to the month, there was, unhappily 
for the Kalmucks, even less latitude allowed to 
their choice than with respect to the year. It was is 
absolutely necessary, or it was thought so, that the 
different divisions of the nation which pastured 
their flocks on both banks of the Wolga should 
have the means of effecting an instantaneous junc- 
tion ; because the danger of being intercepted by 20 
flying columns of the imperial armies was precisely 
the greatest at the outset. Now, from the want of 
bridges, or sufficient river craft for transporting so 
vast a body of men, the sole means which could be 
depended upon (especially where so many women, 25 
children and camels were concerned) was ice: and 
this, in a state of sufficient firmness, could not be 
absolutely counted upon before the month of Janu- 
ary. Hence it happened that this astonishing 
Exodus of a whole nation, before so much as a so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 61 

whisper of the design had begun to circulate 
amongst those whom it most interested, before it 
was even suspected that any man's wishes pointed 
in that direction, had been definitely appointed for 

5 January of the year 1771. And almost up to the 
Christmas of 1770 the poor simple Kalmuck herds- 
men and their families were going nightly to their 
peaceful beds, without even dreaming that the fiat 
had already gone forth from their rulers which 

10 consigned those quiet abodes, together with the 
peace and comfort which reigned A^dthin them, to 
a withering desolation, now close at hand. 

Meantime war raged on a gi^eat scale between 
Russia and the Sultan, and until the time arrived 

15 for throwing off their vassalage, it was necessary 
that Oubacha should contribute his usual con- 
tingent of martial aid. Xay, it had unfortunately 
become prudent that he should contribute much 
more than his usual aid. Human experience gives 

20 ample evidence that in some mysterious and unac- 
countable way no great design is ever agitated, no 
matter how few or how faithful may be the partici- 
pators, but that some presentiment — some dim mis- 
giving — is kindled amongst those whom it is chiefly 

25 important to blind. And, however it might have 
happened, certain it is that already, when as yet 
no syllable of the conspiracy had been breathed to 
any man whose very existence was not staked upon 
its concealment, nevertheless, some vague and 

30 uneasy jealousy had arisen in the Russian Cabinet 



52 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

as to the future schemes of the Kalmuck Khan ; 
and very probable it is that but for the war then 
raging, and the consequent prudence of conciliating 
a very important vassal, or at least of abstaining 
from what would powerfully alienate him, even at 5 
that moment such measures would have been 
adopted as must forever have intercepted the Kal- 
muck schemes. Slight as were the jealousies of the 
Imperial Court, they had not escaped the Machia- 
velian eyes of Zebek and the Lama. And under lo 
their guidance Oubacha, bending to the circum- 
stances of the moment, and meeting the jealousy 
of the Eussian Court with a policy corresponding 
to their own, strove by unusual zeal to efface the 
Czarina's unfavorable impressions. He enlarged 15 
the scale of his contributions, and that so 
prodigiously that he absolutely carried to head- 
quarters a force of thirty-five thousand cavalry 
fully equipped: some go further, and rate the 
amount beyond forty thousand; but the smaller 20 
estimate is, at all events, luithin the truth. 

With this magnificent array of cavalry, heavy as 
well as light, the Khan went into the field under 
great expectations; and these he more than 
realized. Having the good fortune to be concerned 25 
with so ill-organized and disorderly a description 
of force as that which at all times composed the 
bulk of a Turkish army, he carried victory along 
with his banners; gained many partial successes; 
and at last, in a pitched battle, overthrew the 3o 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 53 

Turkish force opposed to him with a loss of live 
thousand men left upon the field. 

These splendid achieyements seemed likely to 
operate in various ways against the impending 

5 revolt. Oubacha had now a strong motive, in the 
martial glory acquired, for continuing his con- 
nection with the empire in whose service he had 
won it, and by whom only it could be fully appre- 
ciated. He was now a great marshal of a gTeat 

10 empire, one of the Paladins around the imperial 
throne; in China he would be nobody, or (worse 
than that) a mendicant alien, prostrate at the 
feet, and soliciting the precarious alms of a 
prince with whom he had no connection. 

15 Besides, it might reasonably be expected that the 
Czarina, grateful for the really efficient aid given 
by the Tartar prince, would confer upon him 
such eminent rewards as might be sufficient to 
anchor his hopes upon Russia, and to wean him 

20 from every possible seduction. These were the 
obvious suggestions of prudence and good sense to 
every man who stood neutral in the case. But 
they were disappointed. The Czarina knew her 
obligations to the Khan, but she did not acknowl- 

25 edge them. Wherefore? That is a mystery, per- 
haps never to be explained. So it was, however. 
The Khan went unhonored; no iihase ever 
proclaimed his merits; and perhaps, had he even 
been abundantly recompensed by Russia, there 

30 were others who would have defeated these ten- 



' 54 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

deiicies to reconciliation. Erempel, Zebek, and 
Loosang the Lama, were pledged life-deep to 
prevent any accommodation; and their efforts were 
unfortunately seconded by those of their deadliest 
enemies. In the Russian Court there were at that 5 
time some great nobles preoccupied with feelings of 
hatred and blind malice towards the Kalmucks, 
quite as strong as any which the Kalmucks could 
harbor towards Russia, and not, perhaps, so well 
founded. Just as much as the Kalmucks hated 10 
the Russian yoke, their galling assumption of 
authority, the marked air of disdain, as towards a 
nation of ugly, stupid, and filthy barbarians, which 
too generally marked the Russian bearing and 
language, but, above all, the insolent contempt, 15 
or even outrages, which the Russian governors or 
great military commandants tolerated in their 
followers towards the barbarous religion and 
superstitious mummeries of the Kalmuck priest- 
hood — precisely in that extent did the fe- 20 
rocity of the Russian resentment, and their 
wrath at seeing the trampled worm turn or at- 
tempt a feeble retaliation, react upon the 
unfortunate Kalmucks. At this crisis, it is prob- 
able that enyy and wounded pride, upon wit- 25 
nessing the splendid victories of Oubacha and 
Momotbacha over the Turks and Bashkirs, con- 
tributed strength to the Russian irritation. And 
it must have been through the intrigues of those 
nobles about her person who chiefly smarted so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 55 

under these feelings that the Czarina could ever 
have lent herself to the unwise and ungrateful 
policy pursued at this critical period towards the 
Kalmuck Khan. That Czarina was no longer 

5 Elizabeth Petrowna; it was Catherine II. — a prin- 
cess who did not often err so injuriously (injuriously 
for herself as much as for others) in the measm^es 
of her government. She had soon ample reason 
for repenting of her false policy. Meantime, how 

10 much it must have co-operated with the other 
motives previously acting upon Oubacha in sus- 
taining his determination to revolt, and how power- 
fully it must have assisted the efforts of all the 
Tartar chieftains in prepai'ing the minds of their 

15 people to feel the necessity of this difficult enter- 
prise, by arming their pride and their suspicions 
against the Russian Government, through the 
keenness of thek sympathy with the wrongs of 
their insulted prince, may be readily imagined. It 

20 is a fact, and it has been confessed by candid Rus- 
sians themselves, when treating of this gi'eat 
dismemberment, that the conduct of the Russian 
Cabinet throughout the period of suspense and 
dming the crisis of hesitation in the Kalmuck 

25 Council was exactly such as was most desirable for 
the purposes of the conspirators ; it was such, in 
fact, as to set the seal to all their machinations, by 
supplying distinct evidences and official vouchers for 
what could otherwise have been, at the most, matters 

30 of doubtful suspicion and indirect presumption. 



56 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Nevertheless, in the face of all these arguments, 
and even allowing their weight so far as not at all 
to deny the injustice or the impolicy of the imperial 
ministers, it is contended by many persons who 
have reviewed the affair with a command of all 5 
the documents bearing on the case, more especially 
the letters or minutes of council subsequently dis- 
covered in the handwriting of Zebek-Dorchi, and 
the important evidence of the Eussian captive 
Weseloff, who was carried off by the Kalmucks in lo 
their flight, that beyond all doubt Oubacha was 
powerless for any purpose of impeding or even of 
delaying the revolt. He himself, indeed, was 
under religious obligations of the most terrific 
solemnity never to flinch from the enterprise, or is 
even to slacken in his zeal: for Zebek-Dorchi, 
distrusting the firmness of his resolution under 
any unusual pressure of alarm or difficulty, had, 
in the very earliest stage of the conspiracy, availed 
himself of the Khan's well-known superstition to 20 
engage him, by means of previous concert with the 
priests and their head the Lama, in some dark and 
mysterious rites of consecration, terminating in 
oaths under such terrific sanctions as no Kalmuck 
would have courage to violate. As far, therefore, 25 
as regarded the personal share of the Khan in what 
was to come, Zebek was entirely at his ease; he 
knew him to be so deeply pledged by religious 
terrors to the prosecution of the conspiracy that 
no honors within the Czarina's gift could have so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 57 

possibly shaken his adhesion: and then, as to 
threats from the same quarter, he knew him to be 
sealed against those fears by others of a gloomier 
character, and better adapted to his peculiar 

5 temperament. For Oubacha was a brave man as 
respected all bodily enemies or the dangers of 
human warfare, but was as sensitive and as timid 
as the most superstitious of old women in facing 
the frowns of a priest, or under the vague anticipa- 

10 tions of ghostly retributions. But, had it been 
otherwise, and had there been any reason to appre- 
hend an unsteady demeanor on the part of this 
prince at the approach of the critical moment, such 
were the changes already effected in the state of 

15 then' domestic politics amongst the Tartars, by the 
undermining ai^ts of Zebek-Dorchi and his ally the 
Lama, that very little importance would have 
attached to that doubt. All power was now 
effectually lodged in the hands of Zebek-Dorchi. 

20 He was the true and absolute wielder of the Kal- 
muck sceptre; all measm^es of importance were 
submitted to his discretion ; and nothing was finally 
resolved but under his dictation. This result he 
had brought about, in a year or two, by means 

25 sufficiently simple : fii^st of all, by availing himself 
of the prejudice in his favor, so lai'gely diffused 
amongst the lowest of the Kalmucks, that his own 
title to the throne, in quality of great-grandson in 
a du'ect line from Ajouka, the most illustrious of 

30 all the Kalmuck Khans, stood upon a better basis 



58 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

than that of Oubacha, who derived from a collateral 
branch ; secondly, Avith respect to that sole advan- 
tage which Oubacha possessed above himself in the 
ratification of his title, by improving this difference 
between their situations to the disadvantage of his 5 
competitor, as one who had not scrupled to accept 
that triumph from an alien power at the price of 
his independence which he himself (as he would 
have it understood) disdained to court ; thirdly, by 
his own talents and address, coupled with the 10 
ferocious energy of his moral character; fourthly 
— and perhaps in an equal degree — by the criminal 
facility and good nature of Oubacha; finally (which 
is remarkable enough, as illustrating the character 
of the man), by that very new modeling of the Sarga 15 
or Privy Council which he had used as a principal 
topic of abuse and m^alicious insinuation against 
the Eussian Government, whilst, in reality, he first 
had suggested the alteration to the Empress, and 
he chiefly appropriated the political advantages so 
which it was fitted to yield. For, as he was him- 
self appointed the chief of the Sargatchi, and as 
the pensions to the inferior Sargatchi passed 
through his hands, whilst in effect they owed 
their appointments to his nomination, it may be 25 
easily supposed that, whatever power existed in the 
state capable of controlling the Khan being held 
by the Sarga under its new organization, and this 
body being completely under his influence, the 
final result was to throw all the functions of the 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 59 

state, whether nominally in tlie prince or in the 
council, substantially into the hands of this one 
man; whilst, at the same time, from the strict 
league which he maintained with the Lama, all the 

5 thunders of the spiritual power were always ready 
to come in aid of the magistrate, or to supply his 
incapacity in cases which he could not reach. 

But the time was now rapidly approaching for 
the mighty experiment. The day was drawing 

10 near on which the signal was to be given for rais- 
ing the standard of revolt, and by a combined 
movement on both sides of the Wolga for spreading 
the smoke of one vast conflagration, that should 
wrap in a common blaze their own huts and the 

15 stately cities of their enemies, over the breadth and 
length of those great provinces in which their flocks 
were dispersed. The year of the tiger was now 
within one little month of its commencement ; the 
fifth morning of that year was fixed for the fatal 

20 day when the fortunes and happiness of a whole 
nation were to be put upon the hazard of a dicer's 
throw; and as yet that nation was in profound 
ignorance of the whole plan. The Khan, such 
was the kindness of his nature, could not bring 

25 himself to make the revelation so urgently 
required. It was clear, however, that this could 
not be delayed; and Zebek-Dorchi took the task 
willingly upon himself. But where or how should 
this notification be made, so as to exclude Russian 

30 hearers? After some deliberation, the following 



60 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

plan was adopted: — Couriers, it was contrived, 
should arrive in furious haste, one upon the heels 
of another, reporting a sudden inroad of the 
Kirghises and Bashkirs upon the Kalmuck lands, 
at a point distant about 120 miles. Thither all the 5 
Kalmuck families, according to immemorial cus- 
tom, were requu^ed to send a separate representa- 
tive; and there accordingly, within three days, all 
appeared. The distance, the solitary gi^ound 
appointed for the rendezvous, the rapidity of the lo 
march, all tended to make it almost certain that 
no Eussian could be present. Zebek-Dorchi then 
came forward. He did not waste many words upon 
rhetoric. He unfurled an immense sheet of parch- 
ment, visible from the uttermost distance at which i5 
any of this vast crowd could stand; the total 
number amounted to 80,000; all saw, and many 
heard. They were told of the oppressions of 
Russia ; of her pride and haughty disdain evidenced 
towards them by a thousand acts ; of her contempt 20 
for their religion ; of her determination to reduce 
them to absolute slavery ; of the preliminary meas- 
ures she had already taken .by erecting forts upon 
many of the great rivers in their neighborhood; 
of the ulterior intentions she thus announced to 25 
circumscribe their pastoral lands, until they would 
all be obliged to renounce their flocks, and to col- 
lect in towns like Sarepta, there to pursue 
mechanical and servile trades of shoemaker, tailor, 
and weaver, such as the free-born Tartar had 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 61 

always disdained. "Then, again," said the subtle 
prince, "she increases her military levies npon our 
population every year; we pour out our blood as 
young men in her defence, or more often in sup- 

5 port of her insolent aggressions; and, as old men, 
we reap nothing from our sufferings, nor benefit 
by our survivorship where so many are sacrificed." 
At this point of his harangue, Zebek produced 
several papers (forged, as it is generally believed, 

10 by himself and the Lama), containing projects of 
the Eussian Court for a general transfer of the eld- 
est sons, taken en masse from the gi^eatest Kalmuck 
families, to the imperial court. "Xow let this be 
once accomplished," he argued, "and there is an 

15 end of all useful resistance from that day forwards. 
Petitions we might mxake, or even remonstrances; 
as men of words we might play a bold part ; but for 
deeds, for that sort of language by which our 
ancestors were used to speak — holding us by such 

20 a chain, Eussia would make a jest of our wishes, 
knowing full well that we should not dare to make 
any effectual movement." 

Having thus sufficiently aroused the angry pas- 
sions of his vast audience, and having alarmed 

25 their fears by this pretended scheme against their 
first-born (an artifice which was indispensable to his 
purpose, because it met beforehand every form of 
amendment to his proposal coming from the more 
moderate nobles, who would not otherwise have 

30 failed to insist upon trying the effect of bold 



62 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

addresses to the Empress before resorting to any 
desperate extremity), Zebek-Dorchi opened his 
scheme of revolt, and, if so, of instant revolt; since 
any preparations reported at St. Petersburg would 
be a signal for the armies of Eussia to cross into 5 
such positions from all parts of Asia as would 
effectually intercept their march. It is remark- 
able, however, that, with all his audacity and his 
reliance upon the momentary excitement of the 
Kalmucks, the subtle prince did not venture, at 10 
this stage of his seduction, to make so startling a 
proposal as that of a flight to China. All that he 
held out for the present was a rapid march to the 
Temba or some other great river, which they were 
to cross, and to take up a strong position on the is 
farther bank, from which, as from a post of con- 
scious security, they could hold a bolder language 
to the Czarina, and one wjiich would have a better 
chance of winning a favorable audience. 

These things, in the irritated condition of the 20 
simple Tartars, passed by acclamation; and all 
returned homewards to push forward with the 
most furious speed the preparations for their awful 
undertaking. Kapid and energetic these of neces- 
sity were ; and in that degree they became notice- 25 
able and manifest to the Russians who happened to 
be intermingled with the different hordes, either 
on commercial errands, or as agents officially from 
the Eussian Government, some in a financial, 
others in a diplomatic character. 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 63 

Amongst these last (indeed at the head of them) 
was a Eussian of some distinction, by name 
Kichinskoi, a man memorable for his vanity, and 
memorable also as one of the many victims to the 

5 Tartar revolution. This Kichinskoi had been sent 
by the Empress as her envoy to overlook the con- 
duct of the Kalmucks ; he was styled the Grand 
Pristaw, or Great Commissioner, and was univer- 
sally known amongst the Tartar tribes by this title. 

10 His mixed character of ambassador and of political 
surveillant^ combined with the dependent state of 
the Kalmucks, gave him a real weight in the Tar- 
tar councils, and might have given him a far greater, 
had not his outrageous self-conceit, and his arro- 

15 gant confidence in his own authority as due chiefly 
to his personal qualities for command, led him 
into such harsh displays of power, and menaces so 
odious to the Tartar pride, as very soon made him 
an object of their profoundest malice. He had 

20 publicly insulted the Khan ; and upon making a 
communication to him to the effect that some 
reports began to circulate, and even to reach the 
Empress, of a design in agitation to fly fi^om the 
imperial dominions, he had ventured to say, ''But 

25 this you dare not attempt ; I laugh at such 
rumors; yes, Khan, I laugh at them to the 
Empress ; for you are a chained bear, and that you 
know." The Khan turned away on his heel with 
marked disdain ; and the Pristaw, foaming at the 

30 mouth, continued to utter, amongst those of the 



G4 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Khan's attendants who staid behmd to catch his 
real sentiments in a moment of unguarded passion, 
all that the blindest frenzy of rage could suggest 
to the most presumptuous of fools. It was now 
ascertained that suspicions had arisen ; but at the 5 
same time it was ascertained that the Pristaw spoke 
no more than the truth in representing himself to 
have discredited these suspicions. The fact was 
that the mere infatuation of vanity made him 
believe that nothing could go on undetected by his 10 
all-piercing sagacity, and that no rebellion could 
prosper v/hen rebuked by his commanding pres- 
ence. The Tartars, therefore, pursued their prepa- 
rations, confiding in the obstinate blindness of the 
Grand Pristaw as in their perfect safeguard ; and 15 
such it proved — to his own ruin as well as that of 
mjTiads beside. 

Christmas arrived ; and, a little before that time, 
courier upon courier came dropping in, one upon 
the very heels of another, to St. Petersburg, 80 
assuring the Czarina that beyond all doubt the 
Kalmucks were in the very crisis of departure. 
These despatches came from the Governor of 
Astrachan, and copies were instantly forwarded to 
Kichinskoi. Now, it happened that between this 25 
governor — a Eussian named Beketoff — and the 
Pristaw had been an ancient feud. The very name 
of Beketoif inflamed his resentment ; and no sooner 
did he see that hated name attached to the des- 
patch than he felt himself confirmed in his former 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. ^6 

views with ten-fold bigotry, and wrote instantly, 
in terms of the most pointed ridicule, against the 
new alarmist, pledging his own head upon the 
yisionariness of his alarms. Beketoff, however, 
5 was not to be put down by a few hard words, or 
by ridicule: he persisted in his statements; the 
Eussian ministry were confounded by the 
obstinacy of the disputants ; and some were begin- 
ning even to treat the Governor of Astrachan as a 
10 bore, and as the dupe of his own nervous terrors, 
when the memorable day arrived, the fatal 5th of 
January, which for ever terminated the dispute, 
and put a seal upon the earthly hopes and fortunes 
of unnumbered myriads. The Governor of Astra- 
is chan was the first to hear the news. Stung by the 
mixed furies of jealousy, of triumphant vengeance, 
and of anxious ambition, he sprang into his 
sledge, and, at the rate of 300 miles a day, 
pursued his route to St. Petersburg — ^rushed into 
20 the Imperial presence — announced the total reali- 
zation of his worst predictions; and, upon the 
confirmation of this intelligence by subsequent 
despatches from many different posts on the Wolga, 
he received an imperial commission to seize the 
26 person of his deluded enemy, and to keep him 
in strict captivity. These orders were eagerly 
fulfilled; and the unfortunate Kichinskoi soon 
afterwards expired of grief and mortification in 
the gloomy solitude of a dungeon — a victim to 
30 his own immeasurable vanity, and the blinding 



66 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

self-delusions of a presumption that refused all 
warning. 

The Governor of Astrachan had been but too 
faithful a prophet. Perhaps even lie was surprised 
at the suddenness with which the verification fol- 5 
lowed his reports. Precisely on the 5th of Janu- 
ary, the day so solemnly appointed under religious 
sanctions by the Lama, the Kalmucks on the east 
bank of the Wolga were seen at the earliest dawn 
of day assembling by troops and squadrons, and in lo 
the tumultuous movement of some great morning 
of battle. Tens of thousands continued moving 
off the ground at every half -hour's interval. 
Women and children, to the amount of two hun- 
dred thousand and upwards, were placed upon 15 
w^agons, or upon camels, and drew off by masses 
of twenty thousand at once — placed under suitable 
escorts, and continually swelled in numbers by 
other outlying bodies of the horde, who kept fall- 
ing in at various distances upon the fii'st and second 20 
day's march. From sixty to eighty thousand of 
those who we::e the best mounted staid behind the 
rest of the tribes, with purposes of devastation and 
plunder more violent than prudence justified, or 
the amiable character of the Khan could be sup • 25 
posed to approve. But in this, as in other 
instances, he was completely overruled by the 
malignant counsels of Zebek-Dorchi. The first 
tempest of the desolating fury of the Tartars dis- 
charged itself upon their own habitations. But 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 67 

this, as cutting off all infirm looking backward 
from the hardships of their march, had been 
thought so necessary a measure by all the chief- 
tains that even Oubacha himself was the first to 

5 authorise the act by his own example. He seized 
a torch previously prepared with materials the 
most durable as well as combustible, and steadily 
applied it to the timbers of his own palace. Noth- 
ing was saved from the general wreck except the 

10 portable part of the domestic utensils, and that 
part of the wood-work which could be applied to 
the manufacture of the long Tartar lances. This 
chapter in their memorable day's work being fin- 
ished, and the whole of their villages throughout a 

15 district of ten thousand square miles in one simul- 
taneous blaze, the Tartars waited for further orders. 
These, it was intended, should have taken a 
character of valedictory vengeance, and thus have 
left behind to the Czarina a dreadful commentary 

20 upon the main motives of then' fiight. It was the 
purpose of Zebek-Dorchi that all the Eussian towns, 
churches, and buildings of every description, should 
be given up to pillage and destruction, and such 
treatment applied to the defenseless inhabitants as 

25 might naturally be expected from a fierce people 
already infuriated by the spectacle of their own 
outrages, and by the bloody retaliations which they 
must necessarily have provoked. This part of the 
tragedy, however, was happily intercepted by a 

30 providential disappointment at the very crisis of 



68 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

departure. It has been mentioned already that the 
motive for selecting the depth of winter as the 
season of flight (which otherwise was obviously the 
very worst possible) had been the impossibility of 
effecting a junction sufficiently rapid wdth the tribes 5 
on the west of the Wolga, in the absence of bridges, 
unless by a natural bridge of ice. For this one 
advantage, the Kalmuck leaders had consent ecj to 
aggravate by a thousandfold the calamities inevit- 
able to a rapid flight over boundless tracts of 10 
country, with women, children, and herds of cattle 
— for this one single advantage; and yet, after all, 
it was lost. The reason never has been explained 
satisfactorily, but the fact was such. Some have 
said that the signals were not properly concerted 15 
for marking the moment of absolute departure — 
that is, for signifying whether the settled intention 
of the Eastern Kalmucks might not have been sud- 
denly interrupted by adverse intelligence. Others 
have supposed that the ice might not be equally 20 
strong on both sides of the river, and might even 
be generally insecure for the treading of heavy 
and heavily laden animals such as camels. But the 
prevailing notion is that some accidental movements 
on the 3d and 4th of January of Kussian troops in 25 
the neighbourhood of the Western Kalmucks, 
though really having no reference to them or their 
plans, had been construed into certain signs that all 
was discovered ; and that the prudence of theWestern 
chieftains, who, from situation, had never been so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 69 

exposed to those intrigues by Avhich Zebek-Dorchi 
had practised upon the pride of the Eastern tribes, 
now stepped in to save their people from ruin. 
Be the cause what it might, it is certain that the 

5 Western Kalmucks were in some way prevented 
from forming the intended junction with their 
brethren of the opposite bank; and the result was 
that at least one hundred thousand of these Tartars 
were left behind in Eussia. This accident it was 

10 which saved their Eussian neighbors universally 
from the desolation which else awaited them. One 
general massacre and conflagTation would assuredly 
have surprised them, to the utter extermination of 
their property, their houses, and themselves, had it 

15 not been for this disappointment. But the Eastern 
chieftains did not dare to put to hazard the safety 
of their brethren under the first impulse of the 
Czarina's vengeance for so di^eadful a tragedy; for, 
as they were well aware of too many circumstances 

20 by which she might discover the concurrence of the 
Western people in the general scheme of revolt, 
they justly feared that she would thence infer their 
concurrence also in the bloody events which marked 
its outset. 

25 Little did the Western Kalmucks guess what 
reasons they also had for gratitude on account of 
an interposition so unexpected, and which at the 
moment they so generally deplored. Could they 
have but w^itnessed the thousandth part of the 

30 sufferings which overtook their Eastern brethren 



70 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

in the first month of then' sad flight, they would 
have blessed Heaven for their own narrow escape; 
and yet these sufferings of the first month were but 
a prelude or foretaste comparatively slight of those 
which afterwards succeeded. 5 

For now began to um^oU the most awful series of 
calamities, and the most extensive, which is any- 
where recorded to have visited the sons and 
daughters of men. It is possible that the sudden 
inroads of destroying nations, such as the Huns, 10 
or the Avars, or the Mongol Tartars, may have 
infiicted misery as extensive ; but there the misery 
and the desolation would be sudden, like the flight of 
volleying lightning. Those who were spared at 
first would generally be spared to the end ; those 15 
who perished at all would perish at once. It is 
possible that the French retreat from Moscow may 
have made some nearer approach to this calamity 
in duration, though still a feeble and miniature 
approach ; for the French sufferings did not com- 20 
mence in good earnest until about one month from 
the time of leaving Moscow ; and, though it is true 
that afterwards the vials of wrath were emptied 
upon the devoted army for six or seven weeks in 
succession, yet what is that to this Kalmuck 25 
tragedy, which lasted for more than as many 
months? But the main feature of horror by which 
the Tartar march was distinguished from the 
French lies in the accompaniment of women and 
children. They were both, it is true, with the so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 71 

French army, but not so many as to bear any 
marked proportion to the total numbers concerned. 
The French, in short, were merely an army — a 
host of professional destroyers, whose regular trade 

5 was bloodshed, and whose regular element was 
danger and suffering. But the Tartars were a 
nation carrying along with them more than two 
hundred and fifty thousand women and children, 
utterly unequal, for the most part, to any contest 

10 with the calamities before them. The Children of 
Israel were in the same circumstances as to the 
accompaniment of their families; but they were 
released from the pursuit of their enemies in a very 
early stage of their flight; and their subsequent 

15 residence in the Desert was not a march, but a con- 
tinued halt, and under a continued interposition of 
Heaven for their comfortable support. Earth- 
quakes, again, however comprehensive in their 
ravages, are shocks of a moment's duration. A 

20 much nearer approach made to the wide range and 
the long duration of the Kalmuck tragedy may 
have been in a pestilence such as that which visited 
Athens in the Peloponnesian War, or London in 
the reign of Chaises II. There also the martyi's 

25 were counted by myriads, and the period of the 
desolation was counted by months. But, after all, 
the total amount of destruction was on a smaller 
scale ; and there was this feature of alleviation to 
the conscious pressure of the calamity — that the 

30 misery was withdrawn from public notice into 



72 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

private chambers and hospitals. The siege of 
Jerusalem by Vespasian and his son, taken in its 
entire circumstances, comes nearest of all — for 
breadth and depth of suffering, for duration, for 
the exasperation of the suffering from without by 5 
internal feuds, and, finally, for that last most 
appalling expression of the furnace -heat of the 
anguish in its power to extinguish the natural 
affections even of maternal love. But, after all, 
each case had circumstances of romantic misery lo 
peculiar to itself — circumstances without precedent, 
and (wherever human nature is ennobled by Chris- 
tianity), it may be confidently hoped, never to be 
repeated. 

The first point to be reached, before any hope of is 
repose could be encouraged, was the river Jaik. 
This was not above 300 miles from the main point 
of departure on the Wolga; and, if the march 
thither was to be a forced one, and a severe one, it 
was alleged, on the other hand, that the suffering 20 
would be the more brief and transient ; one sum- 
mary exertion, not to be repeated, and all was 
achieved. Forced the march was, and severe 
beyond example: there the forewarning proved 
correct; but the promised rest proved a mere 25 
phantom of the wilderness — a visionary rainbow, 
which fled before their hope-sick eyes, across these 
interminable solitudes, for seven months of hard- 
ship and calamity, without a pause. These suffer- 
ings, by their very nature, and the circumstances so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 73 

under which they arose, were (like the scenery of 
the steppes) somewhat monotonous in their color- 
ing and external features; what variety, however, 
there was will be most naturally exhibited by trac- 

5 ing historically the successive stages of the general 
misery, exactly as it unfolded itself under the 
double agency of weakness still increasing from 
within and hostile pressure from without. Viewed 
in this manner, under the real order of develop- 

10 ment, it is remarkable that these sufferings of the 
Tartars, though under the moulding hands of 
accident, arrange themselves almost with a scenical 
propriety. They seem combined as with the skill 
of an artist; the intensity of the misery advancing 

15 regularly with the advances of the march, and 
the stages of the calamity corresponding to the 
stages of the route ; so that, upon raising the cur- 
tain which veils the great catastrophe, we behold 
one vast climax of anguish, towering upwards by 

20 regular gradations, as if constructed artificially for 
picturesque effect — a result which might not have 
been surprising had it been reasonable to anticipate 
the same rate of speed, and even an accelerated 
rate, as prevailing through the later stages of 

25 the expedition. But it seemed, on the contrary, 
most reasonable to calculate upon a contin- 
ual decrement in the rate of motion according 
to the increasing distance from the headquar- 
ters of the pursuing enemy. This calculation, 

30 however, was defeated by the extraordinary 



74 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

circumstance that the Eussian armies did not 
begin to close in very fiercely upon the Kal- 
mucks until after they had accomplished a distance 
of full 2000 miles: 1000 miles farther on the 
assaults became even more tumultuous and murder- 5 
ous : and already the great shadows of the Chinese 
Wall were dimly descried when the frenzy and 
acliarnement of the pursuers, and the bloody 
desperation of the miserable fugitives, had reached 
its uttermost extremity. Let us briefly rehearse 10 
the main stages of the misery, and trace the 
ascending steps of the tragedy, according to the 
great divisions of the route marked out by the 
central rivers of Asia. 

The first stage, we have already said, was from 15 
the Wolga to the Jaik; the distance about 300 
miles; the time allowed seven days. For the first 
week, therefore, the rate of marching averaged 
about 43 English miles a day. The weather was 
cold, but bracing ; and, at a more moderate pace, 20 
this part of the journey might have been accom- 
plished without much distress by a people as hardy 
as the Kalmucks; as it was, the cattle suffered 
greatly from over-driving; milk began to fail even 
for the children ; the sheep perished by wholesale ; 25 
and the children themselves were saved only by 
the innumerable camels. 

The Cossacks, who dwelt upon the banks of the 
Jaik, were the first among the subjects of Eussia 
to come into collision with the Kalmucks. Great 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. '^o 

was their surprise at the suddenness of the irrup- 
tion, and great also their consternation; for, 
according to their settled custom, by far the greater 
part of their number was absent during the winter 

5 months at the fisheries upon the Caspian. Some 
who were liable to surprise at the most exposed 
points fled in crowds to the fortress of Koulagina, 
which was immediately invested and summoned by 
Oubacha. He had, however, in his train only a 

10 few light pieces of artillery ; and the Eussian com- 
mandant at Koulagina, being aware of the 
hurried circumstances in which the Khan was 
placed, and that he stood upon the very edge, as 
it were, of a renewed flight, felt encouraged by 

15 these considerations to a more obstinate resistance 
than might else have been advisable, with an 
enemy so little disposed to observe the usages of 
civilized warfare. The period of his anxiety was 
not long : on the fifth day of the siege he descried 

20 from the walls a succession of Tartar couriers, 
mounted upon fleet Bactrian camels, crossing the 
vast plains around the. fortress at a furious pace, 
and riding into the Kalmuck encampment at 
various points. Great agitation appeared imme- 

25 diately to follow : orders were soon after despatched 
in all directions: and it became speedily known 
that upon a distant flank of the Kalmuck move- 
ment a bloody and exterminating battle had been 
fought the day before, in which one entire tribe of 

30 the Khan's dependants, numbering not less than 



76 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

9000 fighting men, had perished to the last man. 
This was the oiiloss^ or clan, called Feka-Zechorr, 
between whom and the Cossacks there was a feud 
of ancient standing. In selecting, therefore, the 
points of attack, on occasion of the present hasty 5 
inroad, the Cossack chiefs were naturally eager so 
to direct their efforts as to combine with the serv- 
ice of the Empress some gratification to their own 
party hatreds : more especially as the present was 
likely to be their final opportunity for revenge, if lo 
the Kalmuck evasion should prosper. Having, 
therefore, concentrated as large a body of Cossack 
cavalry as circumstances allowed, they attacked the 
hostile oitloss with a precipitation which denied to 
it all means for communicating with Oubacha; for is 
the necessity of commanding an ample range of 
pasturage, to meet the necessities of their vast 
flocks and herds, had separated this ouloss from the 
Khan's head-quarters by an interval of 80 miles ; 
and thus it was, and not from oversight, that it so 
came to be thrown entirely upon its own resources. 

Line ii. — Evasion — De Quincey was singularly exact 
in his use of words. He always chose the word which 
v/ould express the precise shade of meaning which he had 
in mind, and thus his vocabulary became much larger 
than that of a less exact writer w^ould be. He delighted 
in the use of words of classic origin, and sometimes used 
them in their original rather than in their derived 
meaning. The common use of the word "evasion," 
for example, differs essentially from the sense in which 
he uses it here ; yet, so far as its original meaning goes, 
it is used with entire propriety. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 77 

These had proved insufficient: retreat, from the 
exhausted state of their horses and camels, no less 
than from the prodigious encumbrances of their 
live stock, was absolutely out of the question: 

5 quarter was disdained on the one side, and would 
not have been granted on the other : and thus it had 
happened that the setting sun of that one day (the 
thirteenth from the first opening of the revolt) 
ttoew his parting rays upon the final agonies of an 

10 ancient oidoss, stretched upon a bloody field, who 
on that day's dawning had held and styled them- 
selves an independent nation. 

Universal consternation was diffused through the 
wide borders of the Khan's encampment by this 

15 disastrous intelligence ; not so much on account of 
the numbers slain, or the total extinction of a 
powerful ally, as because the position of the Cos- 
sack force was likely to put to hazard the future 
advances of the Kalmucks, or at least to retard and 

20 hold them in check until the heavier columns of 
the Russian army should arrive upon their flanks. 
The siege of Koulagina was instantly raised ; and 
that signal, so fatal to the happiness of the women 
and their childi'en, once again resounded through 

25 the tents — ^the signal for flight, and this time for 
a flight more rapid than ever. About 150 miles 
ahead of their present position, there arose a tract 
of hilly country, forming a sort of margin to the 
vast sea-like expanse of champaign savannahs, 

so steppes, and occasionally of sandy deserts, which 



78 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

stretched away on each side of this margin both 
eastwards and westwards. Pretty nearly in the 
centre of this hilly range lay a narrow defile, 
through which passed the nearest and the most 
practicable route to the river Torgai (the farther 5 
bank of which river offered the next great station 
of security for a general halt). It was the more 
essential to gain this pass before the Cossacks, 
inasmuch as not only would the delay in forcing 
the pass give time to the Eussian pursuing columns 10 
for combining their attacks, and for bringing uj) 
their artillery, but also because (even if all enemies 
in pursuit were thrown out of the question) it was 
held by those best acquainted with the diffi- 
cult and obscure geography of these pathless 15 
steppes — ^that the loss of this one narrow strait 
amongst the hills would have the effect of throw- 
ing them (as their only alternative in a case where 
so wide a sweep of pasturage was required) upon a 
chcuit of at least 500 miles extra; besides that, 20 
after all, this circuitous route would carry them to 
the Torgai at a point ill fitted for the passage of 
their heavy baggage. The defile in the hills, 
therefore, it was resolved to gain; and yet, unless 
they moved upon it with the velocity of light 25 
cavalry, there was little chance but it would be 
found preoccupied by the Cossacks. They also, it 
is true, had suffered greatly in the bloody action 
with the defeated ouloss; but the excitement of 
victory, and the intense sympathy with their 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 79 

unexampled triumph, had again swelled their 
ranks, and would probably act with the force of a 
vortex to draw in theh simple countrymen from 
the Caspian. The question, therefore, of preoccu- 

5 pation was reduced to a race. The Cossacks were 
marching upon an oblique line not above 50 miles 
longer than that which led to the same point from 
the Kalmuck head-quarters before Koulagina; 
and, therefore, without the most furious haste on 

10 the part of the Kalmucks, there was not a chance 
for them, burdened and "trashed" as they were, 
to anticipate so agile a light cavalry as the Cos- 
sacks in seizing this important pass. 

Dreadful were the feelings of the poor women on 

15 hearing this exposition of the case. For they 
easily understood that too capital an interest (the 
sunima reriim) was now at stake, to allow of any 
regard to minor interests, or what would be con- 
sidered such in their present circumstances. The 

20 di'eadful week already passed — their inauguration 
in misery — was yet fresh in their remembrance. 
The scars of suffering were impressed not only 
upon their memories, but upon their very persons 
and the persons of their children. And they knew 

25 that, where no speed had much chance of meeting 
the cravings of the chieftains, no test would be 
accepted, short of absolute exhaustion, that as 
mucli had been accomplished as could have been 
accomplished. AVeseloff, the Russian captive, has 

30 recorded the silent wretchedness with which the 



80 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

women and elder boys assisted in drawing the tent- 
ropes. On the 5th of January all had been anima- 
tion, and the joyousness-of ii:kdefinite expectation; 
now, on the contraryV.ja- brief ^but bitter experience 
had taught them to take api amended calculation 5 
of what it was that lay before them. 

One whole day and far into the succeeding night 
had the renev/ed; flight continued; the sufferings 
had been greater ttan ./before ; for the cold had 
been more intense ;*an(?*mar^ -perished out of the 10 
living creatures through. ^fe^J^ class, except only 
the camels — whoser'p(iwei;s:^^endurai^ seemed 
equally adapted to'colcj. and to heat. The second 
morning, howefe^', brought an alleviation to the 
distress. Snow haid begun to fall, and, though not 15 
deep at present, ii'W^as -easily foreseen that it soon 
would be so; and that, as a hal^ Would in that 
case become unavoidable, no plan could be better 
than that of staying where they were ; especially 
as the same cause would check the advance of the 20 
Cossacks. Here then was the last interval of 
comfort which gleamed upon the unhappy nation 
during their whole migration. For ten days the 
snow continued to fall with little intermission. At 
the end of that time, keen, bright, frosty weather 25 
succeeded ; the drifting had ceased ; in three days the 
sm^ooth expanse became firm enough to support the 
treading of the camels ; and the flight was recom- 
menced. But during the halt much domestic com- 
fort had been enjoyed; and for the last timeuniver- 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 81 

sal plenty. The cows and oxen had perished in such 
vast numbers on the previous marches that an 
order was now issued to turn what remained to 
account by slaughtering the whole, and salting 
5 whatever part should be found to exceed the 
immediate consumption. This measure led to a 
scene of general banqueting and even of festivity 
amongst all who were not incapacitated for Joyous 
emotions by distress of mind, by grief for the 

10 unhappy experience of the few last days, and by 
anxiety for the too gloomy future. Seventy 
thousand persons of all ages had already perished, 
exclusively of the many thousand allies who had 
been cut down by the Cossack sabre. And the 

15 losses in reversion were likely to be many more. 
For rumors began now to arrive from all quarters, 
by the mounted couriers whom the Khan had des- 
patched to the rear and to each flank as well as in 
advance, that large masses of the imperial troojps 

20 were converging from all parts of Central iVsia to 
the fords of the river Torgai, as the most con- 
venient point for intercepting the flying tribes; 
and it was by this time well known that a powerful 
division was close in their rear, and was retarded 

25 only by the numerous artillery which had been 
judged necessary to support their operations. Xew 
motives were thus daily arising for quickening the 
motions of the wi'etched Kalmucks, and for 
exhausting those who were akeady but too much 

30 exhausted. 



82 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

It was not until the 2d day of February that the 
Khan's advanced guard came in sight of Ouchim, 
the defile among the hills of Mougaldchares, in 
which they anticipated so bloody an opposition 
from the Cossacks. A pretty large body of these 5 
light cavalry had, in fact, preoccupied the pass by 
some hours; but the Khan, having two gi'eat 
advantages — namely, a strong body of infantry, 
who had been conveyed by sections of five on about 
200 camels, and some pieces of light artillery which 10 
he had not yet been forced to abandon — soon began 
to make a serious impression upon this unsup- 
ported detachment; and they would probably at 
any rate have retired; but at the very moment 
Avhen they were making some dispositions in that 15 
view Zebek-Dorchi appeared upon the rear with a 
body of trained riflemen, who had distinguished 
themselves in the war with Turkey. These men 
had contrived to crawl unobserved over the cliifs 
which skirted the ravine, availing themselves of 20 
the dry beds of the summer torrents, and other 
inequalities of the ground, to conceal their move- 
ment. Disorder and trepidation ensued instantly 
in the Cossack files; the Khan, who had been 
waiting with the elite of his heavy cavalry, charged 25 
furiously upon them ; total overthrow followed to 
the Cossacks, and a slaughter such as in some 
measure avenged the recent bloody extermination 
of their allies, the ancient oiiloss of Feka-Zechorr. 
The slight horses of the Cossacks were unable to so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 83 

support the weight of heavy Polish dragoons and 
a body of trained cameleers (that is, cuirassiers 
mounted on camels) ; hardy they were, but not 
strong, nor a match for their antagonists in 

5 weight ; and their extraordinary efforts through the 
last few days to gain their present position had 
greatly diminished their powers for effecting an 
escape. Very few, in fact, did escape; and the 
bloody day at Ouchim became as memorable 

10 amongst the Cossacks as that which, about twenty 
days before, had signalized the complete annihila- 
tion of the Feka-Zechorr. 

The road was now open to the river Irgitch, and 
as yet even far beyond it to the Torgai ; but how 

15 long this state of things would continue was every 
day more doubtful. Certain intelligence was now 
received that a large Russian army, well appointed 
in every arm, was advancing upon the Torgai 
under the command of General Traubenberg. 

20 This officer was to be joined on his route by ten 
thousand Bashkirs, and pretty nearly the same 
amount of Kirghises — both hereditary enemies of 
the Kalmucks, both exasperated to a point of mad- 
ness by the bloody trophies which Oubacha and 

25 Momotbacha had, in late years, won from such of 
their compatriots as served under the Sultan. The 
Czarina's yoke these wild nations bore with sub- 
missive patience, but not the hands by which it 
had been imposed ; and, accordingly, catching with 

30 eagerness at the present occasion offered to their 



84 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

vengeance, they sent an assurance to the Czarina 
of their perfect obedience to her commands, and 
at the same time a message significantly declaring 
in what spirit they meant to execute them, viz., 
''that they would not trouble her Majesty vvifch 5 
prisoners." 

Here then arose, as before with the Cossacks, a 
race for the Kalmucks with the regular armies of 
Eussia, and concurrently with nations as fierce 
and semi -humanized as themselves, besides that 10 
they had been stung into threefold activity by the 
furies of mortified pride and military abasement, 
under the eyes of the Turkish Sultan. The 
forces, and more especially the artillery, of Eussia 
were far too overwhelming to hear the thought of 15 
a regular opposition in pitched battles, even with 
a less dilapidated state of their resources than 
they could reasonably expect at the period of their 
arrival on the Torgai. In their speed lay their 
only hope — ^in strength of foot, as before, and not 20 
in strength of arm. Onward, therefore, the 
Kalmucks pressed, marking the lines of their wide- 
extending march over the sad solitudes of the 
steppes by a never-ending chain of corpses. The 
old and the young, the sick man on his couch, the 25 
mother with her baby — all were dropping fast. 
Such sights as these, with the many rueful aggra- 
vations incident to the helpless condition of infancy 
— of disease and of female weakness abandoned to 
the wolves amidst a howling wilderness, continued 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 85 

to track their course through a space of full two 
thousand miles ; for so much, at the least, it was 
likely to prove, including the circuits to which 
they were often compelled by rivers or hostile 
5 tribes, from the point of starting on the Wolga, 
until they could reach their destined halting 
gi'ound on the east bank of the Torgai. For the 
first seven weeks of this march their sufferings had 
been embittered by the excessive severity of the 

10 cold ; and every night — so long as wood was to be 
had for fires, either from the lading of the camels, 
or from the desperate sacrifice of their baggage 
wagons, or (as occasionally happened) from the 
forests which skirted the banks of the many rivers 

15 which crossed their path — no spectacle was more 
frequent than that of a circle, composed of men, 
women, and children, gathered by hundreds 
round a central fire, all dead and stiff at the return 
of morning light. Myriads were left behind from 

20 pure exhaustion, of whom none had a chance, 
under the combined evils which beset them, of 
surviving through the next twenty-four hours. 
Fi'ost, however, and snow at length ceased to 
persecute ; the vast extent of the march at length 

25 brought them into more genial latitudes, and the 
unusual duration of the march was gi'adually 
bringing them into more genial seasons of the year. 
Two thousand miles had at last been traversed; 
February, March, April, were gone; the balmy 

30 month of May had opened; vernal sights and 



86 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

sounds came from every side to comfort the heart- 
weary travellers ; and at last, in the latter end of 
May, crossing the Torgai, they took up a position 
where they hoped to find liberty to repose them- 
selves for many weeks in comfort as well as in 5 
security, and to draw such supplies from the fertile 
neighborhood as might restore their shattered 
forces to a condition for executing, with less of 
wreck and ruin, the large remainder of the journey. 
Yes ; it was true that two thousand miles of wan- lo 
dering had been completed, but in a period of 
nearly five months, and with the terrific sacrifice of 
at least two hundred and fifty thousand souls, to 
say nothing of herds and flocks past all reckoning. 
These had all perished: ox, cow, horse, mule, ass, i5 
sheep, or goat, not one survived — only the camels. 
These arid and adust creatures, looking like the 
mummies of some antediluvian animals, without 
the affections or sensibilities of flesh and blood — 
these only still erected their speaking eyes to the 20 
eastern heavens, and had to all appearance come 
out from this long tempest of trial unscathed and 
hardly diminished. The Khan, knowing how 
much he was individually answerable for the 
misery which had been sustained, must have wept 25 
tears even more bitter than those of Xerxes when 
he threw his eyes over the myriads whom he had 
assembled : for the tears of Xerxes were unmingled 
with remorse. Whatever amends were in his power 
the Khan resolved to make, by sacrifices to the 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 87 

general good of all personal regards ; and, accord- 
ingly, even at this point of their advance, he once 
more deliberately bronght under review the whole 
question of the revolt. The question was formally 

5 debated before the Council whether, even at this 
point, they should untread their steps, and, throw- 
ing themselves upon the Czarina's mercy, return 
to their old allegiance. In that case, Oubacha 
professed himself willing to become the scapegoat 

10 for the general transgression. This, he argued, 
was no fantastic scheme, but even easy of accom- 
plishment ; for the unlimited and sacred power of 
the Khan, so well known to the Empress, made it 
absolutely iniquitous to attribute any separate 

15 responsibility to the people — ^upon the Khan rested 
the guilt, upon the Khan would descend the 
imperial vengeance. This proposal was applauded 
for its generosity, but was energetically opposed by 
Zebek-Dorchi. Were they to lose the whole jour- 

20 ney of two thousand miles? Was their misery to 
perish without fruit? True it was that they had 
yet reached only the half-way house; but, in that 
respect, the motives were evenly balanced for 
retreat or for advance. Either way they would 

25 have pretty nearly the same distance to traverse, 
but with this difference — that, forwards, their 
route lay through lands comparatively fertile; 
backwards, through a blasted wilderness, rich only 
in memorials of their sorrow, and hideous to Kal- 

30 muck eyes by the trophies of their calamity. 



88 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Besides, though the Empress might accept an 
excuse for the past, would she the less forbear to 
suspect for the future? The Czarina's pardon 
they might obtain, but could they ever hope to 
recover her confidence? Doubtless there would now 5 
be a standing presumption against them, an 
immortal ground of jealousy; and a jealous gov- 
ernment would be but another name for a harsh 
one. Finally, whatever motives there ever had 
been for the revolt surely remained unimpaired by lo 
anything that had occurred. In reality, the revolt 
was, after all, no revolt, but (strictly speaking) a 
return to their old allegiance; since, not above one 
hundred and fifty years ago ( viz., in the year 
1616), their ancestors had revolted from the i5 
Emperor of China. They had now tried both 
governments ; and for them China was the land of 
promise, and Russia the house of bondage. 

Spite, however, of all that Zebek could say or do, 
the yearning of the people was strongly in behalf of 20 
the Khan's proposal ; the pardon of their prince, 
they persuaded themselves, would be readily con- 
ceded by the Empress; and there is little doubt 
that they would at this time have thrown them- 
selves gladly upon the imperial mercy; when sud- 25 
denly all was defeated by the arrival of two 
envoys from Traubenberg. This general had 
reached the fortress of Orsk, after a very pain- 
ful march, on the 12th of April; thence he 
set forwards towards Oriembourg; which he 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 89 

reached upon the 1st of June, having been 
joined on his route at various times during the 
month of May by the Kirghises and a corps of 
ten thousand Bashkirs. From Oriembourg he sent 

5 forward his official offers to the Khan, which were 
harsh and peremptory, holding out no specific stipu- 
lations as to pardon or impunity, and exacting 
unconditional submission as the preliminary price 
of any cessation from military operations. The 

10 personal character of Traubenberg, which was any- 
thing but energetic, and the condition of his army, 
disorganised in a great measure by the length and 
severity of the march, made it probable that, with 
a little time for negotiation, a more conciliatory 

15 tone would have been assumed. But, unhappily 
for all parties, sinister events occurred in the 
meantime, such as effectually put an end to every 
hope of the kind. 

The two envoys sent forward by Traubenberg 

20 had reported to this officer that a distance of only 
ten days' march lay between his own head-quarters 
and those of the Khan. Upon this fact transpir- 
ing, the Kirghises, by their prince Nourali, and 
the Bashkirs, entreated the Eussian general to 

25 advanc^e without delay. Once having placed his 
cannon in position, so as to command the Kalmuck 
camp, the fate of the rebel Khan and his people 
would be in his own hands : and they would them- 
selves form his advanced guard. Traubenberg, 

30 however (ivliy has not been certainly explained). 



90 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

refused to march, grounding his refusal upon the 
condition of his army, and their absokite need of 
refreshment. Long and fierce was the altercation ; 
but at length, seeing no chance of prevailing, and 
dreading above all other events the escape of their 5 
detested enemy, the ferocious Bashkirs went oflE in 
a body by forced marches. In six days they 
reached the Torgai, crossed by swimming their 
horses, and fell upon the Kalmucks, who were dis- 
persed for many a league in search of food or 10 
provender for their camels. The first day's action 
was one vast succession of independent skirmishes, 
diffused over a field of thirty to forty miles in 
extent ; one party often breaking up into three or 
four, and again (according to the accidents of 15 
ground) three or four blending into one ; flight and 
pursuit, rescue and total overthrow, going on 
simultaneously, under all varieties of form, in all 
quarters of the plain. The Bashkirs had found 
themselves obliged, by the scattered state of the 90 
Kalmucks, to split up into innumerable sections ; 
and thus, for some hours, it had been impossible 
for the most practised eye to collect the general 
tendency of the day's fortune. Both the Khan 
and Zebek-Dorchi were at one moment made pris- 25 
oners, and more than once in imminent danger of 
being cut down ; but at length Zebek succeeded in 
rallying a strong column of infantry, which, with 
the support of the camel-corps on each flank, com- 
pelled the Bashkirs to retreat. Clouds, however, 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 91 

of these wild cavalry continued to arrive through 
the next two days and nights, followed or accom- 
panied by the Kirghises. These being viewed as 
the advanced parties of Traubenberg 's army, the 

5 Kalmuck chieftains saw no hope of safety but in 
flight ; and in this way it happened that a retreat, 
which had so recently been brought to a pause, was 
resumed at the very moment when the unhappy 
fugitives were anticipating a deep repose without 

10 further molestation the whole summer through. 
It seemed as though every variety of wretched- 
ness were predestined to the Kalmucks, and as if 
their sufferings were incomplete unless they were 
rounded and matured by all that the most dreadful 

15 agencies of summer 's heat could superadd to those 
of frost and winter. To this sequel of their story 
I shall immediately revert, after first noticing a 
little romantic episode which occurred at this point 
between Oubacha and his unprincipled cousin 

20 Zebek-Dorchi. 

There was at the time of the Kalmuck flight 
from the Wolga a Eussian gentleman of some rank 
at the court of the Khan, whom, for political reas- 
ons, it was thought necessary to carry along with 

25 them as a captive. For some weeks his confine- 
ment had been very strict, and in one or two 
instances cruel. But, as the increasing distance 
was continually diminishing the chances of escape, 
and perhaps, also, as the misery of the guards 

30 gradually withdrew their attention from all minor 



92 REVOLT OF THE TARTAES. 

interests to their own personal sufferings, the 
vigilance of the custody grew more and more 
relaxed; until at length, upon a petition to the 
Khan, Mr. Weseloff was formally restored to lib- 
erty ; and it was understood that he might use his 5 
liberty in whatever way he chose, even for return- 
ing to Eussia, if that should be his wish. Accord- 
ingly, he was making active preparations for his 
journey to St. Petersburg, when it occurred to 
Zebek-Dorchi that, not improbably, in some of the lo 
battles which were then anticipated with Trauben- 
berg, it might happen to them to lose some 
prisoner of rank, — in which case the Eussian 
Weseloff would be a pledge in their hands for 
negotiating an exchange. Upon this plea, to his is 
own severe affliction, the Eussian was detained 
until the further pleasure of the Khan. The 
Khan's name, indeed, was used through the whole 
affair; but, as it seemed, with so little concurrence 
on his part, that, when Weseloff in a private audi- 20 
ence humbly remonstrated upon the injustice done 
him, and the cruelty of thus sporting with his feel- 
ings by setting him at liberty, and, as it were, 
tempting him into dreams of home and restored 
happiness only for the purpose of blighting them, 25 
the good-natured prince disclaimed all participa- 
tion in the affair, and went so far in proving his 
sincerity as even to give him permission to effect 
his escape; and, as a ready means of commencing 
it without raising suspicion, the Khan mentioned 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 93 

to Mr. Weseloff that he had just then received a 
message from the Hetman of the Bashkhs, solicit- 
ing a private interview on the banks of the Torgai 
at a spot pointed out. That interview was 

5 ai-ranged for the coming night ; and lli\ Weseloff 
might go in the Khan's suite, which on either side 
was not to exceed three persons. Weseloff was a 
prudent man, acquainted with the world, and he 
read treachery in the very outline of this scheme, 

10 as stated by the Khan — treachery against the 
Kian's person. He mused a little, and then com- 
municated so much of his suspicions to the Khan 
as might put him on his guard; but, upon fm'ther 
consideration, be begged leave to decline the honor 

15 of accompanying the Khan. The fact was that 
three Kalmucks, who had strong motives for 
returning to then- countrymen on the west bank of 
the Wolga, guessing the intentions of WeselofE, had 
offered to join him in his escape. These men the 

20 Khan would probably find himself obliged to coun- 
tenance in then* project ; so that it became a point 
of honor with Weseloff to conceal their inten- 
tions, and therefore to accomplish the evasion from 
the camp (of which the first steps only would be 

25 hazardous) without risking the notice of the 
Khan. 

The district in which they were now encamped 
abounded thi'ough many hundi^ed miles with wild 
horses of a docile and beautiful breed. Each of 

30 the four fugitives had caught from seven to ten of 



94 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 



these spirited creatures in the course of the last 
few days : this raised no suspicion, for the rest of 
the Kalmucks had been making the same sort of 
provision against the coming toils of their remain- 
ing route to China. These horses were secured by 5 
halters, and hidden about dusk in the thickets 
which lined the margin of the river. To these 
thickets, about ten at night, the four fugitives 
repaired ; they took a circuitous path, which di'ew 
them as little as possible within danger of chal- lo 
lenge from any of the outposts or of the patrols 
which had been established on the quarters where 
the Bashkirs lay ; and in three-quarters of an hour 
they reached the rendezvous. The moon had now 
risen, the horses were unfastened, and they were is 
in the act of mounting, when suddenly the deed 
silence of the woods was disturbed by a violent 
uproar and the clashing of arms. Weseloff fancied 
that he heard the voice of the Khan shouting for 
assistance. He remembered the communication 20 
made by that prince in the morning; and, request- 
ing his companions to support him, he rode off in 
the direction of the sound. A very short distance 
brought him to an open glade within the wood, 
where he beheld four men contending with a party 25 
of at least nine or ten. Two of the four were 
dismounted at the very instant of Weseloff 's arrival ; 
one of these he recognised almost certainly as the 
Khan, who was fighting hand to hand, but at 
great disadvantage, with two of the adverse horse- 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 95 

men. Seeing that no time was to be lost, Weseloflf 
fired and brought down one of the two. His 
companions discharged then- carbines at the same 
moment, and then all rushed simultaneously into 
5 the little open area. The thundering sound of 
about thirty horses all rushing at once into a nar- 
row space gave the impression that a whole troop 
of cavalry was coming down upon the assailants ; 
who accordingly wheeled about and fled with one 

10 impulse. Weseloff advanced to the dismounted 
cavalier, who, as he expected, proved to be the 
Khan. The man whom Weseloff had shot was 
lying dead; and both were shocked, though 
Weseloff at least was not surprised, on stooping 

15 down and scrutinising his features, to recognise a 
well-known confidential servant of Zebek-Dorchi. 
Nothing was said by either party ; the Khan rode 
off escorted by Weseloff and his companions, and 
for some time a dead silence prevailed. The situa- 

20 tion of Weseloff was delicate and critical ; to leave 
the Khan at this point was probably to cancel their 
recent services ; for he might be again crossed on 
his path, and again attacked by the very party from 
whom he had just been delivered. Yet, on the 

25 other hand, to return to the camp was to endanger 
the chances of accomplishing the escape. The 
Khan also was apparently revolving all this in his 
mind, for at length he broke silence, and said, ''I 
comprehend your situation; and under other cir- 

30 cumstances I might feel it my duty to detain your 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 



companions. But it would ill become me to do so 
after the important service you have just rendered 
me. Let us turn a little to the left. There, 
where you see the watch-fire, is an outpost. 
Attend me so far. I am then safe. You may 5 
turn and pursue your enterprise ; for the circum- 
stances under which you will appear, as my escort, 
are sufficient to shield you from all suspicion for 
the present. I regret having no better means at 
my disposal for testifying my gratitude. But tell ^o 
me before we part — Was it accident only which 
led you to my rescue? Or had you acquired any 
knowledge of the plot by which I was decoyed 
into this snare?" Wesel off answered very candidly 
that mere accident had brought him to the spot at is 
which he heard the uproar, but that, having heard 
it, and connecting it with the Khan's communica- 
tion of the morning, he had then designedly gone 
after the sound in a way which he certainly should 
not have done at so critical a moment, unless in 20 
the expectation of finding the Khan assaulted by 
assassins. A few minutes after they reached the 
outpost at which it became safe to leave the Tartar 
chieftain; and immediately the four fugitives com- 
menced a flight which is perhaps without a paral- 25 
lei in the annals of travelling. Each of them led 
six or seven horses besides the one he rode ; and, by 
shifting from one to the other (like the ancient 
Desultors of the Eoman circus), so as never to bur- 
den the same horse for more than half an hour at 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 97 

a time, they continued to advance at the rate of 
200 miles in the 24 hours for three days consecu- 
tively. After that time, conceiving themselves 
beyond pursuit, they proceeded less rapidly; 

5 though still with a velocity which staggered the 
belief of Weseloff 's friends in after years. He was, 
however, a man of high principle, and always 
adhered firmly to the details of his printed report. 
One of the circumstances there stated is that they 

10 continued to pursue the route by which the Kal- 
mucks had fled, never for an instant finding any 
difficulty in tracing it by the skeletons and other 
memorials of their calamities. In particular, he 
mentions vast heaps of money as part of the valu- 

15 able property which it had been found necessary 
to sacrifice. These heaps were found lying still 
untouched in the deserts. From these Weseloff 
and his companions took as much as they could 
conveniently carry ; and this it was, with the price 

20 of their beautiful horses, which they afterwards 
sold at one of the Eussian military settlements for 
about ^15 apiece, which eventually enabled them 
to pursue their journey in Eussia. This journey, 
as regarded Weseloflf in particular, was closed by a 

25 tragical catastrophe. He was at that time young, 
and the only child of a doting mother. Her 
affliction under the violent abduction of her son 
had been excessive, and probably had undermined 
her constitution. Still she had supported it. 

30 Weseloff, giving way to the natural impulses of his 



98 EEVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

filial affection, had imprudently posted through 
Eussia to his mother's house without warning 
of his approach. He rushed precipitately into 
her presence ; and she, who had stood the shocks 
of sorrow, was found unequal to the shock of joy 
too sudden and too acute. She died upon the spot. 



I now revert to the final scenes of the Kalmuck 
flight. These it would be useless to pursue cir- 
cumstantially through the whole two thousand lo 
miles of suffering which remained ; for the charac- 
ter of that suffering was even more monotonous 
than on the former half of the flight, and also 
more severe. Its main elements were excessive 
heat, with the accompaniments of famine and 15 
thirst, but aggravated at every step by the murder- 
ous attacks of their cruel eaemies the Bashkirs and 
the Kirghises. 

These people, *'more fell than anguish, hunger, 
or the sea, ' ' stuck to the unhappy Kalmucks like 20 
a swarm of enraged hornets. And very often, 
whilst they were attacking them in the rear, their 
advanced parties and flanks were attacked with 
almost equal fury by the people of the country 
which they were traversing ; and with good reason, 25 
since the law of self-preservation had now obliged 
the fugitive Tartars to plunder provisions, and to 
forage wherever they passed. In this respect their 
condition was a constant oscillation of ivretched- 
ness; for sometimes, pressed by grinding famine, so 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 99 

they took a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles, in 
order to strike into a land rich in the comforts of 
life ; but in such a land they were sure to find a 
crowded population, of which every arm Avas 

5 raised in unrelenting hostility, with all the advan- 
tages of local knowledge, and with constant 
preoccupation of all the defensible positions, 
mountain passes, or bridges. Sometimes, again, 
weaiued out with this mode of suffering, they took 

10 a circuit of perhaps a hundred miles, in order to 
strike into a land with few or no inhabitants. But 
in such a land they were sure to meet absolute 
starvation. Then, again, whether with or without 
this plague of stai'vation, whether with or without 

15 this plague of hostility in front, whatever might be 
the "fierce varieties" of their misery in this respect, 
no rest ever came to their unhappy rear ; it was a 
torment like the undying worm of conscience. 
And, upon the whole, it presented a spectacle alto- 

20 gether unprecedented in the history of mankind. 
Private and personal malignity is not unfrequently 
immortal ; but rare indeed is it to find the same 
pertinacity of malice in a nation. And what 
embittered the interest was that the malice Avas 

25 reciprocal. Thus far the parties met upon equal 
terms ; but that equality only sharpened the sense 
of their dire inequality as to other circumstances. 
The Bashkirs wore ready to fight "from morn to 
dewy eve. " The Kalmucks, on the contrary, were 

30 always obliged to run. Was it from their enemies 



100 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

as creatures whom they feared? No ; but toioards 
their friends — towards that final haven of China — 
as what was hourly implored by the prayers of their 
wives, and the tears of their children. But, 
though they fled unwillingly, too often they fled in 5 
vain — being unwillingly recalled. There lay the 
torment. Every day the Bashkirs fell upon them; 
every day the same unprofitable battle was 
renewed; as a matter of course, the Kalmucks 
recalled part of their advanced guard to fight 10 
them; every day the battle raged for hours, and 
uniformly with the same result. For no sooner 
did the Bashkirs find themselves too heavily pressed 
and that the Kalmuck march had been retarded 
by some hours, than they retired into the bound- 15 
less deserts, where all pursuit was hopeless. But, 
if the Kalmucks resolved to press forward, regard- 
less of their enemies, in that case their attack, 
became so fierce and overwhelming that the gen- 
eral safety seemed likely to be brought into ques- 20 
tion ; nor could any effectual remedy be applied to 
the case, even for each separate day, except by a 
most embarrassing halt, and by countermarches, 
that, to men in their circumstances, were almost 
worse than death. It will not be surprising that 25 
the irritation of such a systematic persecutions 
superadded to a previous and hereditary hatred, 
and accompanied by the stinging consciousness of 
utter impotence as regarded all effectual vengeance, 
should gradually have inflamed the Kalmuck ani- 30 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 101 

mosity into the wildest expression of downright 
madness and frenzy. Indeed, long before the 
frontiers of China were approached, the hostility 
of both sides had assumed the appearance much 
5 more of a warfare amongst wild beasts than 
amongst creatures acknowledging the restraints of 
reason or the claims of a common nature. The 
spectacle became too atrocious; it was that of a 
host of lunatics pursued by a host of fiends. 



*0n a fine morning in early autumn of the year 
1771, Kien Lung, the Emperor of China, was 
pursuing his amusements in a wild frontier dis- 
trict lying on the outside of the Great Wall. For 
5 many hundred square leagues the country was deso- 
late of inhabitants, but rich in woods of ancient 
gi'owth, and overrun with game of every descrip- 
tion. In a central spot of this solitary region the 

*It is probable that much of the thrilhng narrative, 
which follows, is without historic foundation. Kien 
Lung expressly states, in the memoir of this event, 
which he caused to be prepared, that he did not meet 
the flying Kalmucks in person, but deputized certain of 
his nobles to take his place. The editor has also been 
unable to find any authority for the closing catastrophe, 
which is so magnificently portrayed. It may, therefore, 
be justly inferred that De Quincey gave free rein to his 
imagination, especially in this final scene. We may, 
however, well condone a lack of historic accuracy in a 
passage of such brilliancy and power as that which closes 
this remarkable essay. 



102 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Emperor had built a gorgeous hunting lodge, to 
which he resorted annually for recreation and 
relief from the cares of government. Led onwards 
in pursuit of game, he had rambled to a distance 
of 200 hundred miles or more from this lodge, 5 
followed at a little distance by a sufficient military 
escort, and every night pitching his tent in a 
different situation, until at length he had arrived 
on the very margi]i of the vast central deserts of 
Asia. Here he was standing by accident at an 10 
opening of his pavilion, enjoying the morning sun- 
shine, when suddenly to the westwards there arose 
a vast cloudy vapor, which by degrees expanded, 
mounted, and seemed to be slowly diffusing itself 
over the whole face of the heavens. By and by i5 
this vast sheet of mist began to thicken towards the 
horizon, and to roll forward in billowy volumes. 
The Emperor's suite assembled from all quarters. 
The silver trumpets were sounded in the reai% and 
from all the glades and forest avenues began to trot 20 
forward towards the pavilion the yagers — half 
cavalry, half huntsmen — who composed the 
imperial escort. Conjecture. was on the stretch 
to divine the cause of this phenomenon, and the 
interest continually increased, in proportion as 25 
simple curiosity gradually deepened into the anxiety 
of uncertain danger. At first it had been imagined 
that some vast troops of deer, or other wild ani- 
mals of the chase, had been disturbed in their 
forest haunts by the Emperor's movements, or 30 



i 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 103 

possibly by wild beasts prowling for prey, and 
might be fetching a compass by way of re-entering 
the forest grounds at some remoter points secm-e 
from molestation. But this conjecture was dissi- 

5 pated by the slow increase of the cloud, and the 
steadiness of its motion. In the course of two 
hours the vast phenomenon had advanced to a point 
which was judged to be within five miles of the 
spectators, though all calculations of distance were 

10 difficult, and often fallacious, when applied to the 
endless expanses of the Tartar deserts. Through 
the next hour, during which the gentle morning 
breeze had a little fi^eshened, the dusty vapor had 
developed itself fai^ and wide into the appearance 

15 of huge aerial draperies, hanging in mighty vol- 
umes from the sky to the earth ; and at particular 
points, where the eddies of the breeze acted upon 
the pendulous skirts of these aerial curtains, rents 
were perceived, sometimes taking the form of 

20 regular arches, portals, and w^indows, through 
which began dimly to gleam the heads of camels 
"indorsed" with human beings — and at intervals 
the moving of men and horses in tumultuous array 
— and then through other openings or vistas at fai* 

25 distant points the flashing of polished arms. But 
sometimes, as the wind slackened or died away, all 
those openings, of w^hatever form, in the cloudy 
pall would slow^ly close, and for a time the whole 
pageant was shut up from view; although the 

30 growing din, the clamors, shrieks, and gi'oans, 



104 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

ascending from infuriated myriads, reported, in a 
language not to be misunderstood, what was going 
on behind the cloudy screen. 

It was in fact the Kalmuck host, now in the last 
extremities of their exhaustion, and very fast 5 
approaching to that final stage of privation and 
killing misery, beyond which few or none could 
have lived, but also, happily for themselves, fast 
approaching (in a literal sense) that final stage of 
their long pilgi'image at which they would meet lo 
hospitality on a scale of royal magnificence, and 
full protection from their enemies. These ene- 
mies, however, as yet, were still hanging on their 
rear as fiercely as ever, though this day was destined 
to be the last of their hideous persecution. The i5 
Khan had, in fact, sent forward couriers with all 
the requisite statements and petitions, addressed to 
the Emperor of China. These had been duly 
received, and preparations made in consequence to 
welcome the Kalmucks with the most paternal 20 
benevolence. But, as these couriers had been 
despatched from the Torgai at the moment of 
arrival thither, and before the advance of Trauben- 
berg had made it necessary for the Khan to order a 
hasty renewal of the flight, the Emperor had not 25 
looked for their arrival on his frontiers until full 
three months after the present time. The Khan 
had indeed expressly notified his intention to pass 
the summer heats on the banks of the Torgai, and 
to recommence his retreat about the beginning of 30 



i 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 105 

September. The subsequent change of plan, being 
unknown to Kien Long, left him for some time in 
doubt as to the true interpretation to be put upon 
this mighty apparition in the desert ; but at length 
5 the savage clamors of hostile fury, and the 
clangor of weapons, unveiled to the Emperor the 
true nature of those unexpected calamities which 
had so prematm^ely precipitated the Kalmuck 
measures. 
10 Apprehending the real state of affairs, the 
Emperor instantly perceived that the first act of his 
fatherly care for these erring childi'en (as he 
esteemed them), now returning to their ancient 
obedience, must be — to deliver them from then- 
is pursuers. And this was less difficult than might 
have been supposed. Xot many miles in the rear 
was a body of well-appointed cavalry, with a strong 
detachment of artillery, who always attended the 
Emperor 's motions. These were hastily summoned. 
20 Meantime it occurred to the train of courtiers that 
some danger might ai'ise to the Emperor's person 
from the proximity of a lawless enemy; and 
accordingly he was induced to retire a little to the 
rear. It soon appeared, however, to those who 
25 watched the vapory shroud in the desert, that its 
motion was not such as would ai^gue the direction 
of the mai'ch to be exactly upon the pavilion, but 
rather in a diagonal line, making an angle of full 
45 degi^ees with that line in which the imperial 



106 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

cortege had been standing, and therefore with a 
distance continually increasing. Those who knew 
the country judged that the Kalmucks were mak- 
ing for a large fresh-water lake about seven or eight 
miles distant. They were right; and to that point 5 
the imperial cavalry was ordered up; and it was 
precisely in that spot, and about three hours after, 
and at noonday on the 8th of September, that the 
great Exodus of the Kalmuck Tartars was brought 
to a final close, and with a scene of such memor- lo 
able and hellish fury as formed an appropriate 
winding up to an expedition in all its parts and 
details so awfully disastrous. The Emperor was 
not personally present, or at least he saw whatever 
he did see from too great a distance to discriminate i5 
its individual features ; but he records in his writ- 
ten memorial the report made to him of this scene 
by some of his own officers. 

The lake of Tengis, near the dreadful desert of 
Kobi, lay in a hollow amongst hills of a moderate 20 
height, ranging generally from two to three 
thousand feet high. About eleven o'clock in the 
forenoon, the Chinese cavalry reached the summit 
of a road which led through a cradle-like dip in 
the mountains right down upon the margin of the 25 
lake. From this pass, elevated about two thousand 
feet above the level of the water, they continued 
to descend, by a very winding and difficult road, 
for an hour and a half; and during the whole of 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 107 

this descent they were compelled to be inactive 
spectators of the fiendish spectacle below. The 
Kalmucks, reduced by this time from about six 
hundred thousand souls to two hundred and sixty 

5 thousand, and after enduring for so long a time 
the miseries I have previously described — out- 
rageous heat, famine, and the destroying scimitar 
of the Kirghises and the Bashkirs — had for the last 
ten days been traversing a hideous desert, where 

10 no vestiges were seen of vegetation, and no drop of 
water could be found. Camels and men were 
already so overladen that it was a mere impossi- 
bility that they should carry a tolerable sufficiency 
for the passage of this frightful wilderness. On 

15 the eighth day, the wretched daily allowance, 
which had been continually diminishing, failed 
entirely; and thus, for two days of insuj)portable 
fatigue, the horrors of thirst had been carried to 
the fiercest extremity. Upon this last morning, at 

20 the sight of the hills and the forest scenery, which 
announced to those who acted as guides the 
neighborhood of the lake of Tengis, all the people 
rushed along with maddening eagerness to the 
anticipated solace. The day gi^ew hotter and 

25 hotter, the people more and more exhausted, and 
gradually, in the general rush forwards to the lake, 
all discipline and command were lost — all attempts 
to preserve a rearguard were neglected — the wild 
Bashkirs rode in amongst the encumbered people. 



108 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 



and slauglitered them by wliolesale, and almost 
without resistance. Screams and tumultuous 
shouts proclaimed the progress of the massacre; 
but none heeded — none halted; all alike, pauper or 
noble, continued to rush on with maniacal haste to 5 
the waters — all with faces blackened by the heat 
preying upon the liver, and with tongue drooping 
from the mouth. The cruel Bashkir was affected 
by the same misery, and manifested the same 
symptoms of his misery as the wretched Kalmuck ; 10 
the murderer was oftentimes in the same frantic 
misery as his murdered victim — many indeed (an 
ordinary effect of thirst) in both nations had 
become lunatic, and in this state, w^hilst mere 
multitude and condensation of bodies alone opposed 15 
any check to the destroying scimitar and the 
trampling hoof, the lake was reached; and into 
that the whole vast body of enemies together 
rushed, and together continued to rush, forgetful 
of all things at that moment but of one almighty 20 
instinct. This absorption of the thoughts in one 
maddening appetite lasted for a single half -hour ; 
but in the next arose the final scene of parting 
vengeance. Far and wide the waters of the solitary 
lake were instantly dyed red with blood and gore : 25 
here rode a party of savage Bashkirs, hewing off 
heads as fast as the swathes fall before the mower 's 
scythe ; there stood unarmed Kalmucks in a death- 
grapple with their detested foes, both up to the 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 109 

middle in water, and oftentimes both sinking 
together below the surface, from weakness or from 
struggles, and perishing in each other 's arms. Did 
the Bashkirs at any point collect into a cluster for 

5 the sake of giving impetus to the assault? Thither 
were the camels diiven in fiercely by those who 
rode them, generally women or boys; and even 
these quiet creatures were forced into a share in 
this carniyal of murder, by trampling down as 

10 many as they could strike prostrate w^ith the lash 
of their fore-legs. Every moment the water grew 
more polluted; and yet every m^oment fresh 
mp'iads came up to the lake and rushed in, not 
able to resist their fi^antic thirst, and swallowing 

15 large di'aughts of water, visibly contaminated with 
the blood of their slaughtered compatriots. 
Wheresoever the lake was shallow enough to allow 
of men raising their heads above the water, there, 
for scores of acres, were to be seen all forms of 

20 ghastly fear, of agonizing struggle, of spasm, of 
death, and the fear of death — ^i^evenge, and the 
lunacy of revenge — until the neutral spectators, of 
whom there were not a few, now descending the 
eastern side of the lake, at length averted their 

25 eyes in horror. This horror, which seemed inca- 
pable of fm'ther addition, was, however, increased 
by an unexpected incident. The Bashkirs, begin- 
ning to perceive here and there the approach of the 
Chinese cavalry, felt it prudent — wheresoever they 



110 REVOLT OF THE TARTAES. 

were sufficiently at leisure from the passions of the 
mnrderous scene — to gather into bodies. This was 
noticed by the governor of a small Chinese fort, 
built upon an eminence above the lake; and 
immediately he threw in a broadside, which spread 5 
havoc amongst the Bashkir tribe. As often as the 
Bashkirs collected into globes and turms^ as 
their only means of meeting the long lines of 
descending Chinese cavalry — so often did the 
Chinese governor of the fort pour in his extermina- lo 
ting broadside; until at length the lake, at its 
lower end, became one vast seething caldron of 
human bloodshed and carnage. The Chinese 
cavalry had reached the foot of the hills: the 
Bashkirs, attentive to their movements, had is 
formed; skirmishes had been fought: and, with a 
quick sense that the contest was henceforwards 
rapidly becoming hopeless, the Bashkirs and 
Kirghises began to retire. The pursuit was not as 
vigorous as the Kalmuck hatred would have 20 
desired. But, at the same time, the very gloomiest 
hatred could not but find, in their own dreadful 
experience of the Asiatic deserts, and in the cer- 
tainty that these wretched Bashkirs had to repeat 
that same experience a second time, for thousands 25 
of miles, as the price exacted by a retributory 
Providence for their vindictive cruelty — not the 
very gloomiest of the Kalmucks, or the least 
reflecting, but found in all this a retaliatory chas- 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. Ill 

tisement more complete and absolute than any 
which their swords and lances could have obtained, 
or human vengeance have devised. 

Here ends the tale of the Kalmuck wanderings 
5 in the Desert ; for any subsequent marches which 
awaited them were neither long nor painful. 
Every possible alleviation and refreshment for 
their exhausted bodies had been already provided 
by Kien Long with the most princely munificence ; 

10 and lands of great fertility were immediately 
assigned to them in ample extent along the river 
Ily, not very far fi'om the point at which they had 
first emerged from the wilderness of Kobi. But 
the beneficent attention of the Chinese Emperor 

15 may be best stated in his own words, as translated 
into French by one of the Jesuit missionaries : — 
"La nation des Torgotes {savoir^ les Kalmuques) 
arriva a Ily, toute delabree, n'ayant ni de quoi 
vivre, ni de quoi se vetir. Je I'avais prevu;et 

so j' avals ordonne de faire en tout gem-eles provisions 
necessaires pour pouvoir les secourir promptement : 
c'est ce qui a ete execute. On a fait la division des 
terres ; et on a assigne a chaque f amille une portion 
suffisante pour pouvoir servir a son entretien, soit 

25 en la cultivant, soit en y nourissant des bcstiaux. 
On a donne a chaque particulier des etoffes pour 
rhabiller, des grains pour se nourrir pendant 
Tespace d'une annee, des ustensiles pour le men- 



112 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

age, et d'autres clioses necessaires: et outre cela 
plusieurs onces d'argent, pour se pourvoir de ce 
qu'on aiirait pu oublier. On a designe des Heux 
particuliers, fertiles en paturages; et on leiir a 
donne des boeufs, moutons, etc. , pour qu'ils pussent & 
dans la suite travailler par eux-memes a leur 
entretien et a leur bien-etre. ''* 

These are the words of the Emperor himself 
speaking in his own person of his own parental 
cares ; but another Chinese, treating the same sub- lo 
ject, records the munificence of this prince in terms 
which proclaim still more forcibly the disinterested 
generosity which prompted, and the delicate con- 
sider ateness which conducted, this extensive bounty. 
He has been speaking of the Kalmucks, and he 15 

*The nation of Torgotes (known as Kalmucks) 
arrived at Ily, wholly destitute, having neither provisions 
nor clothes. I had foreseen this, and had given orders 
that all necessary preparations be made for their prompt 
relief; which was done. A distribution of lands was 
made, and a sufficient portion was assigned to each 
family to serve for its support, either for cultivation 
or for pasturage of cattle. There were given to 
each person materials for clothing, grain for food 
for the period of one year, utensils for household use, 
and other necessary things ; and, besides this, several 
ounces of silver to provide any articles which might 
have been overlooked. Special places were set apart for 
them, rich in pasturage ; and there were given to them 
cattle, sheep, etc., in order that in the future they might 
be able to work for their own support and well-being. 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 113 

goes on thus : — ^'Lorsqu'ils arriverent sur nos fron- 
tiores (an nombre de plusieurs centaines de milla, 
quoique la fatigue extreme, la f aim, la soif , et toutes 
les autres incommodites inseparables d'une tres- 

5 longue et tres penible route, en eussent fait perir 
presque autant), ils etaient reduits a la derniere 
misere; ils manquaient de tout. II," [viz. 
TEmpereur, Kien Long] ''lem* fit preparer des 
logemens conformed a leur maniere de vivi^e ; il leur 

10 fit distribuer des alimens et des habits ; il leur fit 
donner des boeufs, des moutons, et des ustensiles, 
pour les mettre en etat de former des troupeaux et 
de cultiver la terre, et tout cela a ses propres frais, 
qui se sont montes a des somnies immenses, sans 

15 compter I'argent qu'il a donne a chaque chef-de- 
famille, pour pourvoir a la subsistance de sa femme 
et de ses enfans."* 

*When they arrived upon our frontiers (to the num- 
ber of several hundred thousand, although extreme 
fatigue, hunger, thirst, and all the other deprivations 
which are inseparable from a very long and laborious 
journey, had caused almost as many besides to perish), 
they vv'Cre reduced to the most extreme misery, and 
were lacking everything. He (that is, the Emperor, 
Kien Lung) caused lodgings to be provided for them, 
suitable to their manner of living. He caused to be given 
to them cattle, sheep, and implements, to enable them to 
raise herds and cultivate the soil, and all this, which 
amounted to vast sums, at his own expense, without count- 
ing the money which he gave to each head of a family to 
provide for the maintenance of his wife and children. 



114 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Thus, after their memorable year of misery, the 
Kalmucks were replaced in territorial possessions, 
and in comfort equal perhaps, or even superior, to 
that which they had enjoyed in Eussia, and with 
superior political advantages. But, if equal or 5 
superior, their condition was no longer the same; 
if not in degi^ee, their social prosperity had altered 
in quality; for, instead of being a purely pastoral 
and vagrant people, they were now in circum- 
stances which obliged them to become essentially lo 
dependent upon agi'iculture ; and thus far 
raised in social rank, that, by the natural course of 
their habits and the necessities of life, they were 
effectually reclaimed from roving and from the 
savage customs connected with a half nomadic life. 15 
They gained also in political privileges, chiefly 
through the immunity from military service which 
their new relations enabled them to obtain. These 
were circumstances of advantage and gain. But 
one great disadvantage there was, amply to over- 20 
balance all other possible gain: the chances were 
lost or were removed to an incalculable distance for 
their conversion to Christianity, without which, in 
these times, there is no absolute advance possible 
on the path of true civilization. 25 

One word remains to be said upon the personal 
interests concerned in this great drama. The 
catastrophe in this respect was remarkable and 
complete. Oubacha, with all his goodness and 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 115 

incai")acity of suspecting, had, since the mysterious 
affair on the banks of the Torgai, felt his mind 
alienated from his cousin; he revolted from the 
man that would have murdered him; and he had 

5 displayed his caution so visibly as to provoke a 
reaction in the bearing of Zebek-Dorchi, and a dis- 
pleasure which all his dissimulation could not hide. 
This had produced a feud, which, by keeping them 
aloof, had probably saved the life of Oubacha ; for 

10 the friendship of Zebek-Dorchi was more fatal than 
his open enmity. After the settlement on the Ily 
this feud continued to advance, until it came under 
the notice of the Emperor, on occasion of a visit 
which all the Tartar chieftains made to his Majesty 

15 at his hunting lodge in 1772. The Emperor 
informed himself accurately of all the particulars 
connected with the transaction — of all the rights 
and claims put forward — and of the way in which 
they would severally affect the interests of the Kal- 

20 muck people. The consequence Avas that he 
adopted the cause of Oubacha, and repressed the 
pretensions of Zebek-Dorchi, who, on his part, so 
deeply resented this discountenance to his ambitious 
projects that, in conjunction with other chiefs, he 

25 had the presumption even to weave nets of treason 
against the Emperor himself. Plots were laid, were 
detected, were baffled; counter-plots were con- 
structed upon the same basis, and with the benefit 
of the opportunities thus offered. Finally, Zebek- 



116 REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 

Dorchi was invited to the imperial lodge, together 
with all his accomplices; and, under the skillful 
management of the Chinese nobles in the Emperor 's 
establishment, the murderous artifices of these Tar- 
tar chieftains were made to recoil upon themselves, 5 
and the whole of them perished by assassination at 
a great imperial banquet. For the Chinese morality 
is exactly of that kind whicli approves in every- 
thing the lex talio7iis : — 

•'Lex nee justior ulla est (as they think) lo 

Quam necis artifices arte perire sua.*** 

So perished Zebek-Dorchi, the author and origi- 
nator of the great Tartar Exodus. Oubacha, mean- 
time-, and his people, were gradually recovering 
from the effects of their misery, and repairing their 15 
losses. Peace and prosperity, under the gentle 
rule of a fatherly lord paramount, redawned upon 
the tribes : their household lares^ after so harsh a 
translation to distant climes, found again a happy 
reinstatement in what had in fact been their 20 
primitive abodes : they found themselves settled in 
quiet sylvan scenes, rich in all the luxuries of life, 
and endowed with the perfect loveliness of Arcadian 
beauty. But from the hills of this favored land, 
and even from the level grounds as they approached 25 
its western border, they still look out upon that 
fearful wilderness which once beheld a nation in 

*[" Nor is any law more just (as they think) than that 
they who draw the sword by the sword shall perish."] 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS 117 

agony — the utter extirpation of nearly half a mil- 
lion from amongst its numbers, and, for the 
remainder, a storm of misery so fierce that in the 
end (as happened also at Athens during the Pelo- 

5 ponnesian War from a different form of misery) 
very many lost their memory ; all records of their 
past life were wiped out as with a sponge — utterly 
erased and cancelled: and many others lost their 
reason; some in a gentle form of pensive melan- 

10 choly, some in a more restless form of feverish 
delirium and nervous agitation, and others in tHe 
fixed forms of tempestuous mania, raving frenzy, 
or moping idiocy. Two great commemorative 
monuments arose in after years to mark the depth 

15 and permanence of the awe — ^the sacred and rever- 
ential grief vrith which all persons looked back upon 
the dread calamities attached to the year of the 
tiger — all who had either personally shared in those 
calamities, and had themselves drunk from that 

so cup of sorrow, or who had effectually been made 
witnesses to their results and associated with their 
relief : two great monuments ; one embodied in the 
religious solemnity, enjoined by the Dalai Lama, 
called in the Tai'tar language a Romanang — that 

25 is, a national commemoration, with music the most 
rich and solemn, of all the souls who departed to 
the rest of Paradise from the afflictions of the 
Desert (this took place about six years after the 
arrival in China) ; secondly, another, more dm^able 



118 



REVOLT OF THE TARTARS. 



and more commensurate to the scale of the calamity 
and to the grandeur of this national Exodus, in 
the mighty columns of gTanite and brass erected by 
the Emperor Kien Long near the banks of the Ily. 
These columns stand upon the very margin of the 5 
steppes; and they bear a short but emphatic 
inscription to the following effect : 

By the Will of God, 

Here, upon the Brink of these Deserts, 

Which from this Point begin and stretch away 10 

Pathless, treeless, waterless, 

For thousands of miles, and along the margins of many 

mighty Nations, 

Rested from their labors and from great afflictions, 

Under the shadow of the Chinese Wall, 15 

And by the favor of Kien Long, God's Lieutenant upon 

Earth, 
The ancient Children of the Wilderness — the Torgote 
Tartars — 
Flying before the wrath of the Grecian Czar, 20 

Wandering Sheep who had strayed away from the Celes- 
tial Empire in the year 1616, 
But are now mercifully gathered again, after infinite 
sorrow, 
Into the fold of their forgiving Shepherd. 25 

Hallowed be the spot for ever, 
and 
Hallowed be the day — September 8, 1771 ! 
Amen. 



GLOSSARY. 

Acharnement (p. 74, 1. 8).— Ferocity. Is this word 
in good taste here? 

Adust (p. 86, 1. 17). — From the Latin adust us, which 
means burnt or scorched; hence brown, as if sunburnt. 

Anabasis and Katabasis (p. 37, 1. 7). — Literally mean 
the ascent and the descent, but are here used in the 
sense of the invasion and the retreat. The reference is to 
Napoleon's ill-fated expedition against Russia in 18 12. 

Astrachan (p. 65, 1. 9). — Is a province in southeastern 
Russia, on the lower course of the Volga, bordering 
upon the territory of the Kalmucks. 

Avars (p. 70, l.ii). — "The true Avars are represented to 
have been a powerful Turanian people, who exercised a 
wide dominion in Central Asia during the sixth century. 
Among the tribes subject to them was one called the 
Ogors, which is supposed to have belonged to the 
national family of the Huns. Some time in the early 
half of the sixth century, the Turks, who then dwelt in the 
very centre of Asia at the foot of the Altai Mountains, made 
their first appearance as conquerors, and crushed and 
almost annihilated the Avars, by means of which victory^ 
they became the lords of the Ogors. But this vigorous tribe 
found an opportunity to escape from the Turkish yoke. 
Gathering together their wives and children and all their 
possessions, they turned their faces towards the setting 
sun. The terror which inspired their flight rendered 
them resistless in the onset; for the avenging Turk was 
behind them. They overturned everything before 
them, and finally established themselves in the wide 

119 



130 GLOSSARY. 

plains which stretch from the Don to the Volga. In 
that age of imperfect information, they were naturally 
enough confounded with the greatest and most formid- 
able tribe of Turanian stock known to the nations of the 
west. The report that the Avars had broken loose from 
Asia, and were coming in irresistible force to overrun 
Europe, carried terror to all parts of Europe. With 
true barbaric cunning, the Ogors availed themselves of 
the mistake, and by calling themselves Avars largely 
increased the terrors of their name and the chances of 
conquest. Their ravages gradually extended over cen- 
tral Europe, and they continued to be feared until they 
were finally overcome by Charlemagne." — J. G. Shep- 
ard's Fall of Rojne, 

Bashkirs — See page 30, No. 5. 

** Barbaric East" (p. 45,1. 25). — Probably this phrase 
comes from Milton, — 

"Or where the generous East, with richest hand, 
Showers on her kings barbaric pearl and gold. ' * 

— Paradise Lost, II, j-4. 

Behemoth (p. 45, 1. 20). — Is a word of Egyptian origin, 
and may have been originally applied to the hippopota- 
mus. It is now used as a typical name for a large ani- 
mal. Cf. Job, XI; 15. 

Cambyses (p. 36, 1. 30). — Was a Persian king, who 
made an expedition into Egypt, 525 B. C. 

Cyrus (p.37, 1. i). — The younger Cyrus was the second 
son of Darius II. of Persia. He planned to dispossess 
Artaxerxes, his brother, of the throne, and in 401 B. C. 
made the celebrated expedition from Sardis, known as the 
Anabasis, but was met by the royal forces commanded 
by Artaxerxes at Cunaxa, where he was defeated and 
slain. This expedition and the retreat of the Greek 
mercenaries, who accompanied him, have been immor- 



GLOSSARY. 121 

talized by Xenophon in his great work entitled The 
Anabasis. 

Catherine II. (p. 55, 1. 5). — Was empress of Russia from 
1762 to 1796. It is supposed that she was an accomplice 
in the murder of her husband, Peter III., whom she suc- 
ceeded in the royal power. She was a woman of great 
ability, but of dissolute character. 

Champaign Savannahs (p. 77, 1. 29).— The former 
word is derived from the French and the latter from the 
Spanish. Cha7npaign is here used as an adjective, 
meaning yiaf. The reference is to level, treeless plains, 
covered with grass or shrubs and bushes. 

Concert (p. 56, 1. 21). — Here means an agreement. 

Cossacks — See Page 30, No. 4. 

Czar, or Tsar (p. 39, 1. 11). — Is the name of the Em- 
peror of Russia. It is derived from the Latin Caesar. 

Dalai » Lama of Tibet (p. 49, 1. 16). — In the latter part 
of the fourteenth century a schism arose in the Tibetan 
Church, and each of the resulting parties or sects was 
headed by a grand lama. The most powerful of these 
princely priests was the Dalai-Lama, who had his head- 
quarters at Kaldan, near Shasa. Lamaism is a corrupt 
form of Buddhism, and prevailed in Tibet, Mongolia, 
and a large part of Tartary. Its chief feature is the 
worship of Grand Lamas or Priests in whom Buddha 
is supposed to be incarnate. These Priest-Gods were 
very numerous and of unbounded influence. 

Decrement (p. 73, 1. 27), — Notice the unusual word. 
In what sense is it used? 

Desultors (p. 96, 1. 29). — ^Were men who, in the Roman 
Circus races, were accustomed to vault from one steed 
to another, when the horses were going at full speed. 



122 GLOSSARY. 

Elizabeth Petrowna (p. 41, 1. 27).— Was the second 
daughter of Peter the Great. She reigned from 1741 to 
1762, and did much to advance the material prosperity 
of the country, although she was personally cruel and 
dissolute. 

Fiesco (p. 36, 1. 24). — ^Was one of the earlier tragedies 
of the great German poet Schiller. 

French Retreat (p. 70, 1. 17). — The invasion of Rus- 
sia by Napoleon, in 18 12, resembled, in many important 
details, the great barbaric invasions which took place 
in the earlier part of the Christian era. His vast army, 
of more than a quarter of a million of men, swept across 
the country like a tornado, destroying everything that 
came within their reach. The Tartars were not more 
merciless, nor the Huns more exultant in their power. 
But the tide turned at Moscow, and the story of their 
retreat is one of the saddest tales of suffering and 
privation that darken the pages of history. 

Globes (p. 110,1. 7). — A globe was a body of troops 
drawn up in the form of a circle. This was a favorite 
formation with Roman generals. Cf . Milton ; Paradise 

Lost; II, ^12: 

"Him round 
A globe of fiery Seraphim, enclosed 
With bright emblazonry and horrent arms.'* 

Hetman (p. 93, 1. 2). — ^Was the title of the Chief or 
General of the Cossacks. Cf. the German Haupt7nan: 

*'The Ukraine's Hetman, calm and bold," 

— Byron, Mazeppa. 

Huns (p. 70, 1. 10). — The Huns were a savage tribe of 
nomads who invaded Europe in the latter part of the 
fourth century. They came from the barren plateaus of 
Eastern Asia, and inspired terror as much by their hor- 
rible appearance as by their fierce and warlike nature. 



GLOSSARY. 123 

For nearly a hundred years they menaced the peace and 
prosperity of Europe, but were finally subdued by the 
Roman general Aetius in the battle of Chalons, 451 A. D. 

Indorse (p. 103, 1. 22). — The primary meaning of this 
word is to cover the back of, to load or burde7i, 
"Elephants indorsed with towers." 

— Paradise Regained, III, j2g. 
Kalmucks — See page 28, No. 3. 

Khan (p. 35, Title).— The word Khan, according to 
Rawlinson, is derived from the ancient root "Khak," 
meaning a king, which appears in the Ethiopian 
Tirhakah and the Egyptian Hyksos. 

Kien Long (p. 47, 1. 17). — An ambitious and powerful 
monarch who reigned from 1735 to 1784. L'nlike the ma- 
jority of Chinese Emperors, he pursued a vigorous and 
aggressive policy, and made numerous invasions into neigh- 
boring countries. He hadawide reputation as a warlike 
ruler, and it was but natural that the Kalmucks should 
look to him for assistance, especially since, by so doing, 
they would turn their faces towards their ancestral 
home. 

KIrghises — See page 30, No. 6. 

Land of Promise (p. 88, 1. 17). — Allusion is here made 
to the bondage of the Children of Israel in Eg\'pt. The 
land of promise was Palestine, from which their ancestors 
had come, and to which they hoped to return. 

Lemming (p. 35, 1. 21). — "The Lemming is a rodent 
which inhabits the mountainous regions of Sweden and 
Norway. It is remarkable for migrating at certain 
periods, generally at the approach of winter, in immense 
multitudes, in a straight line, apparently in obedience 
to some blind mechanical impulse. They move onward 
in parallel columns, and nothing will induce them to 



124 GLOSSARY. 

deviate from a straight line, the migration always termi- 
nating in the sea, and ending in the drowning of all who 
have survived the journey.'* — Nicholson's Zoology, 

*'Lion=ramp" (p. 45, 1. 22). — Probably quoted from 

Milton's Samson Agonistes, line 139, — 

''The bold Ascalonite 
Fled from his lion-ramp. ' ' 

Ramp is from the French ramper, meaning to creep. It 

may mean here the lion-rage, 

Machiavelli (p. 41,1. 15). — Was a prominent Florentine 
statesman, who was born in 1469 and died in 1527. He 
was noted as a profound thinker, and as one of the 
greatest of Italian authors. He devoted all his time and 
energy to the welfare of his native city, and displayed 
great ability in the various governmental positions which 
he was called upon to fill. His name has come to be a 
synonym for all that is evil in public life, on account of a 
book which he wrote, in which he advocated principles 
which were singularly at variance with his character and 
practice. The book was entitled // Prificipe, In it 
he seeks to show by what means a person may acquire 
and maintain tyrannical power over a community. The 
book is a purely scientific examination of the forces that 
come into play in the successful establishment of a strong 
and durable personal government; from which problem 
he eliminates all extraneous factors like the rights of the 
persons affected and the morality of the acts committed. 

Miltonic Images (p. 36, 1. 3). — The sublimest im- 
agery, perhaps, in all literature is to be found in Milton's 
Paradise Lost. Cf. I, 36-83 ; 169-191 ; II, 165-186. For 
the specific reference here, read the second book of 
Paradise Lost, especially the passage beginning with 
line 310. 

Mongol-Tartar— See page 27, No. 2. 



GLOSSARY. 125 

Monstrous (p. 45, 1. 27).— Used in the sense of extraor- 
dinary, out of the natural order. 

Muscovy (p. 45, 1. 20). — An ancient name for Russia. 

Official vouchers (p. 55, 1. 28). — Note the peculiar use 
of this phrase. 

Paladins (p. 53, 1. 10). — The twelve warriors who 
formed the body-guard of Charlemagne were called 
Paladins. The name was afterwards applied to great 
warriors or champions, who were attached to the per- 
sonal service of some emperor or king. 

Pestilence (p. 71, 1. 22). — The great plague in Athens 
began its ravages in 430 B. C, during the blockade of the 
city by the Spartans. All the space within the walls 
was crowded with the citizens and the refugees had 
sought safety from the foe, within the fortifications, only 
to meet an enemy tenfold more terrible and relentless. 
It is estimated that at least one-fourth of the entire 
population of the city perished. 

The plague in London occuiTed in 1665, and was 
largely the result of the bad sanitary condition of the 
city. Above 100,000 people perished. 

Roubles (p. 43, 1. 16). — At this time, the Russian 
rouble was worth about 80 cents. 

Russia and the Sultan (p. 51, 1. 14).— The attempt of 
Russia to dismember Poland brought on a war in which 
the latter country found a strange champion in Turkey. 
But the Turkish army was wholly inefficient, and their 
resources soon became so nearly exhausted that Russia 
gained gi^eat advantages, and was able to dictate terms 
of peace. The war lasted from 176S to 1774. 

Sarepta (p. 60, 1. 28). — Is a city in Moravia, near the 
great bend of the Volga. 



126 GLOSSARY. 

Siege of Jerusalem (p. 72, 1. i).— In the siege and 
destruction of Jerusalem in 70 A. D., referred to here, 
not less than one million Jews perished. Indeed, some 
authorities make the number much larger. 

Steppes (p. 35,1. 6). — This name is applied to those ex- 
tensive plains which stretch from the Dnieper across the 
southeastern part of European Russia, around the shores 
of the Caspian and Aral seas, and between the Altai 
and Ural chains. In the spring they are covered with 
verdure, but for the greater part of the year are barren 
and dry. 

Tartar — See page 27, No. i. 

Terminus a quo and terminus ad quem (p. 35, 1. 

7). — Literally the end from which, and the end to which. 
The common words would be the beginning and the end. 
Is anything gained by the use of the Latin phrases? 
Is anything lost? 

Translation (p. 46, 1. 27). — Used in its literal sense 
as equivalent to transfer. 

Trashed (p. 79, 1. 11). — De Quincey himself says of 
this word that it was used by Beaumont and Fletcher in 
their Bo 71 due a to describe the situation of a person 
retarded in flight or in pursuit by some incumbrance too 
important to be abandoned. 

Turm (p. no, 1. 7). — Is from the Latin turma, and 
means a troop of horse. 

Ukase (p. 53, 1. 27). — Was an edict or order of the Rus- 
sian government, having the force of law until annulled 
by a subsequent order. 

Venice Preserved, or a Plot Discovered (p. 36 

1. 24). — Was produced in 16S2 by Thomas Otwa}^ an 
almost forgotten dramatist. Edmund Gosse, in his 



GLOSSARY. 127 

Seventeenth Centicry Studies, says: "There are few 
plays in existence so original and so telling in construc- 
tion as this ; the plot is in almost every respect worthy 
to be Shakespeare's." 

Xerxes (p. 86, 1. 26). — Herodotus tells us that, when 
Xerxes had gathered his great army for the invasion of 
Greece in Sardis, 480 B. C, he held a gi'and review. 
As he sat upon a hill-top and beheld the vast hordes 
filing by upon the plains below, he burst into tears, and 
wept bitterly at the thought that a hundred years from 
that time not one of tne unnumbered hosts would be 
alive. 

Yagers, or Jagers, (p. 102,1. 21). — Is from the German 
jag en, to hunt. 




I 



^r<^^a -'jr^^^ 



!i 



LIBRARY OF CONGRESS 




014 456 286 §\ 




